Ottawa Senators at Carolina Hurricanes

Stankoven, Hall, Andersen help Carolina Hurricanes top the Ottawa Senators 2-0 to open NHL playoffs

Carolina can take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series on Monday night in Raleigh.

Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour had gone with Andersen’s veteran experience as the starter over Brandon Bussi, and it paid off for the Eastern Conference’s top seed.

“We have good options and both guys have played well and we have confidence in both guys,” Brind'Amour said. “But clearly experience I think won out, and he looked like he knew what he was doing.”

Andersen finished with 22 saves, including back-to-back stops on a third-period power play that had Ottawa buzzing with quality chances in a 1-0 game. One of those was initially ruled a tying goal on Drake Batherson's rebound attempt at the top of the crease, only for a replay review to overturn the call in showing Andersen had gloved a loose puck as it went airborne near the post and kept it from fully crossing the goal line.

Moments later, he had another when Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk had position at the top of the crease, only for Andersen to fall backward and make the stop with his legs in a sequence that had Hurricanes fans roaring “Freddie! Freddie!”

“It's pretty mind-blowing how loud it gets and how fun it is to play here,” Andersen said.

By the final moments, Andersen and the Hurricanes were holding up against Ottawa spending most of the last 2 1/2 minutes with a 6-on-4 advantage after pulling Linus Ullmark for the extra attacker with the Senators on the power play.

It was a physical game with hard hits, little open space and chippiness throughout. It started with captains Tkachuk and Jordan Staal of Carolina locking up in an immediate fight, jawing in the moments before the opening faceoff before throwing punches, crashing into the ice and then heading to the box just 3 seconds into the game.

“We didn’t find a way to generate enough, but they’re a team also that does that to you as well,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “And I didn’t think we gave up too many grade-As (scoring chances). They were on their toes. They’ve got a real good team, they didn’t finish first for nothing.”

Stankoven got Carolina on the board early in the second period when he took a tap feed from Jackson Blake as he skated into the slot to slip the puck under Ullmark's left pad. That line struck again in the third, with Blake poking a puck loose after an Ullmark stop and sending into the crease — where Stankoven skated in to clean it up and sent the puck off Hall's skate for the 2-0 lead.

The Hurricanes are in the playoffs for the eighth straight year, reaching the Eastern Conference Final in two of the past three years and thrice in this current run that began in 2019. The Senators are in the playoffs for the second straight year after a seven-year postseason drought since a seven-game loss in the 2017 Eastern Conference Final.

Ullmark finished with 27 saves for Ottawa, which had surged since late January to secure the second wild-card spot in the East.

The Senators also had top-pair defenseman Artem Zub exit early with an undisclosed injury after taking two second-period shifts; Green didn't have an update when he spoke with reporters afterward and said the team would know more Sunday.

CAR wins series 2-1