Montreal Canadiens scored four first-period goals and cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. Cole Caufield and Phillip Danault struck in the opening four minutes, Alexandre Texier added to the lead four minutes later, and Ivan Demidov's breakaway made it 4-1 before the period was half over. Seth Jarvis scored for Carolina just 33 seconds in, but Montreal answered almost immediately and never relented.

The Hurricanes entered off an 11-day break — the longest rest for any playoff team since at least 1920 — after sweeping their first two rounds. Carolina had allowed just two goals in eight playoff games heading in, but Montreal moved the puck cleanly out of danger against Carolina's aggressive pressure, feeding breakaways to Frederik Andersen. Jakub Dobes stopped 24 shots while Andersen, who led the postseason with a 1.12 goals-against average, managed just 16 saves.

Juraj Slafkovsky added two third-period goals for Montreal, including a late empty-netter. Eric Robinson scored for Carolina, which is now 1-13 in Eastern Conference final appearances under Rod Brind'Amour. Both Stanley Cup favorites lost their conference final openers — Colorado fell to Vegas the night before.