Hurricanes blow past Flyers 3-0 in opener of Round 2 series

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Logan Stankoven scored twice to continue his post-season tear 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 18 shots for his second shutout of these NHL playoffs and seventh in his post-season career.

Game 2 of the series is Monday night in Raleigh.

Carolina never trailed in closing a first-round sweep of Ottawa last weekend, then had an extended break while the Flyers battled to push past Pittsburgh in overtime of Game 6 on Wednesday. That led to rest-versus-rust conversations about how the Eastern Conference’s top seed would start Saturday.

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. 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 offence on this night with the Flyers struggling to apply much pressure on Andersen.

Philadelphia started its first post-season since 2020 by battling through Pittsburgh to close out a six-game series in overtime on Cam York’s Wednesday night winner. But they sputtered from the start, managing just nine shots on goal through two periods and being outshot 3-0 on their four power plays on the night.

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’s Trevor Zegras and Nick Seeler, along with Blake and Shayne Gostisbehere for Carolina.

Both teams were down key players. The Flyers didn’t have regular-season goals leader Owen Tippett because of an undisclosed injury, while the Hurricanes were missing defenceman Alexander Nikishin after he suffered a concussion in Game 4 against Ottawa.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Aaron Beard, The Associated Press