RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) 鈥� Logan Stankoven scored twice and the Carolina Hurricanes smothered the Philadelphia Flyers in a 3-0 victory Saturday night to open the second-round series.
Jackson Blake also scored for Carolina, and Frederik Andersen stopped 19 shots for his second shutout of these playoffs and seventh in his postseason career.
Game 2 of the series is Monday night in Raleigh, with Carolina yet to trail in any of its five postseason games so far after jumping to a 2-0 first-period lead in this one.
鈥淲e had a good start, obviously,鈥� Hurricanes coach Rod Brind鈥橝mour said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what won the game.鈥�
Carolina closed last weekend, then had an extended break while the Flyers battled to push past Pittsburgh in overtime of Game 6 on Wednesday night. That led to rest-versus-rust conversations about how the Eastern Conference鈥檚 top seed would start Saturday night.
Instead, the Hurricanes pounced from the opening puck drop, a departure from how all four regular-season meetings went to overtime or a shootout.
Stankoven scored in each of the four wins against the Senators, then scored on a redirect from the slot just 1:31 in.
鈥淚 think you鈥檙e just trying to get it off quick,鈥� Stankoven said. 鈥淥bviously, it鈥檚 nice to have that confidence that comes with putting the puck in the net, and yeah, you just kind of build off of it.鈥�
Blake followed at 7:30, splitting two defenders as he entered the zone and charging in to slip a puck behind Dan Vladar.
That was more than enough offense on this night with the Flyers struggling to apply much pressure on Andersen 鈥� who too.
鈥淲e definitely came ready to play,鈥� Andersen said.
Philadelphia started its first postseason since 2020 by battling through Pittsburgh to close out . But the Flyers sputtered from the start, managing just nine shots on goal through two periods and being outshot 3-2 on their four power plays for the night.
Otherwise, they struggled to find much open ice with Carolina鈥檚 aggressive style closing in rapidly to shut down lanes toward Andersen or for the pass.
鈥淲e talked about it, we just didn鈥檛 live it on the ice,鈥� Flyers coach Rick Tocchet said, pointing to a need to react quicker against Carolina鈥檚 pressure. 鈥淲e weren鈥檛 quick enough for their speed. … It鈥檚 a good baptism how some of our players are going to have to play.鈥�
By the final 10 minutes, the game had turned testy with players having to be separated multiple times. That included 10-minute misconduct penalties on Philadelphia鈥檚 Trevor Zegras and Nick Seeler, along with Blake and Shayne Gostisbehere for Carolina.
Both teams were down key players. The Flyers didn鈥檛 have regular-season goals leader Owen Tippett because of an undisclosed injury, while the Hurricanes were missing defenseman Alexander Nikishin after he suffered a concussion in Game 4 against Ottawa.
Carolina veteran Mike Reilly drew in for Nikishin and had the primary assist on Stankoven鈥檚 first goal and the secondary assist on Blake鈥檚 score.
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