Hurricanes shut out Senators
- The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators 2–0 in Game 1 of their series. (wral.com) - Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall scored, and Frederik Andersen finished strong to preserve the shutout. (wral.com) - The matchup opened with a gloves‑off moment as Brady Tkachuk and Jordan Staal dropped the gloves at the opening faceoff. (foxnews.com)
Carolina opened its first-round series by smothering Ottawa in a 2-0 win Saturday, with Frederik Andersen stopping 22 shots for a playoff shutout in Raleigh. (nhl.com) Logan Stankoven scored 2:11 into the second period, and Taylor Hall added a deflection goal at 7:15 of the third. Jackson Blake assisted on both goals, while Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark made 27 saves. (espn.com) The game started with a fight three seconds after the opening faceoff, when Senators captain Brady Tkachuk and Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal dropped the gloves. Ottawa thought it had cut the deficit to 2-1 in the third, but a replay review wiped out Drake Batherson’s would-be goal. (usatoday.com) Carolina entered the playoffs as the Eastern Conference’s top seed after a 53-22-7 regular season and 113 points. Ottawa got in as the East’s second wild card at 44-27-11 with 99 points. (espn.com) That gap showed up in Game 1’s shape: Carolina finished with a 29-22 edge in shots and kept Ottawa off the board even after a third-period push. Andersen’s shutout was the sixth of his Stanley Cup playoff career. (nhl.com) For Carolina, Hall and Stankoven scoring in the opener matters because both arrived as midseason additions to deepen a veteran core built around Staal, Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov. For Ottawa, the loss put immediate pressure on a younger group trying to turn a wild-card berth into a long spring run. (abc11.com) Game 2 is scheduled for Monday, April 20, back in Raleigh, with Carolina trying to take a 2-0 series lead before the matchup shifts to Ottawa. (espn.com)
