Hurricanes roll past Canadiens 6-1 in Eastern Conference Final, earn trip to Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Rod Brind’Amour wore a big smile as he walked on the ice to join his Carolina Hurricanes for a photo behind the Prince of Wales Trophy.

It took eight years, but the Hurricanes have finally broken through their Eastern Conference Final roadblock. Now comes the chance to play for the Stanley Cup for the first time in two decades.

Taylor Hall, Logan Stankoven and Eric Robinson scored in a dominating first period that helped push the Hurricanes past the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 on Friday night, closing a five-game series that sent the East’s top seed on to face Vegas for the Cup.

Three times before under Brind’Amour, the Hurricanes had reached this round, only to win just a single game.

This time, they shook off an ugly series-opening loss that harkened back to those past struggles by winning four straight, steadily asserting control of the series and dominating the last two games to earn that on-ice celebration in front of a rowdy home crowd.

“I wasn’t prepared for media (interviews) and I’m probably going to start crying,” veteran forward Jordan Martinook said in the locker room. “A lot of years with a lot of pain. … It’s been a crazy journey in my time here, but this team, it’s been really special.”

Jackson Blake and Shayne Gostisbehere added second-period goals that pushed the Hurricanes to a 5-0 lead entering the final period, while Seth Jarvis scoring into an empty net with 3:41 left. Frederik Andersen carried a shutout until midway through the third in net, an emotional performance coming a day after his agent and former NHL player Claude Lemieux died after taking his own life.

Carolina swept through the first two rounds of the playoffs, then regrouped from a 6-2 loss in Game 1 after an extended between-rounds break to win four straight. That included a run of 10 straight goals going back to Andrei Svechnikov’s overtime goal in Game 3 before Montreal finally got on the board with Cole Caufield’s power-play score midway through the third.

That made the Hurricanes the first team to reach the Stanley Cup Final with only one loss since 1983, according to SportRadar, and the only team to do so since the league went to best-of-seven series in all four postseason rounds in 1987.

It was a long-awaited moment for the franchise, even for the new arrivals. That included defenseman K’Andre Miller — a summer trade addition as a missing piece — sitting near the ice afterward, holding his newborn son and shaking his head in an emotional moment of taking it all in.

“It’s kind of hard to unpack right now,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s a weird feeling because it’s kind of where we all thought we should be.”

The Hurricanes have been a perennial contender in the East, yet they entered this series having gone 1-12 in the Eastern Conference Final under Brind’Amour — falling in sweeps to Boston in 2019 and Florida in 2023 before losing in five games to the Panthers in last year’s rematch.

But they were tested, and wounded, from those past postseason failures. Throw in their depth and talent, and the Hurricanes were finally ready to punch through for their third shot at the Cup since the former Hartford Whalers relocated to North Carolina before the 1997-98 season.

The last time the Hurricanes reached this point? Brind’Amour was the captain on a team that hoisted the Cup in a seven-game series against Edmonton in 2006.

After regrouping from a 6-2 loss in Game 1, the Hurricanes took control of the series from the young and skilled Canadiens — who had arrived at this round ahead of schedule after Game 7 road wins against Tampa Bay and Buffalo through the first two rounds.

“As close as it feels, we’re so far away still,” Montreal defenseman Lane Hutson said. “So much more to do to battle to get the ultimate goal. Even when you win two rounds, you still got to find another level for the next round.”

Carolina won consecutive 3-2 overtime games, then took Game 4 in a 4-0 road romp Wednesday.

Beyond the score, Carolina was getting to its smothering game in pressuring the Canadiens in their own end or shutting off most high-danger chances they could muster going the other way.

By midway through the second period, the festive and rowdy crowd was offering “Olé! Olé! Olé! Olé!” chants in a mocking nod to Canadiens fans with Carolina up 4-0. By the final two minutes, they were chanting “We want the Cup! We want the Cup!” as the Hurricanes closed this one out.

“They’re a good team, a lot experience,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “You’ve got to give credit to how well they’ve played. They made it really hard on us.”

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Aaron Beard, The Associated Press