Golden Knights ride out early storm, find way to win Game 1 of Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The Vegas Golden Knights have done it so often -- fall behind, don’t panic, stay patient, come back, find a way to win -- showing the mettle of a team with a core that won the Stanley Cup in 2023.

They did it again in a 5-4 win against the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday, rallying from a 2-0 deficit, scoring the winning goal with 3:24 left in the third period and silencing the raucous crowd at Lenovo Center.

“The foundation of our team, the guts of our team, has been through this before,” coach John Tortorella said. “We’re down 2-0. There wasn’t panic on the bench. Those guys kind of lead the way by not panicking. They don’t say much. They just play, and I think other people follow behind them. I think that’s so important this time of year.”

Another team would have been in trouble. This was the first Stanley Cup Final game in Carolina in two decades, and the arena was rocking. Nikolaj Ehlers scored on the first shot of the night 25 seconds into the first period then put the Hurricanes ahead 2-0 at 12:08 of the first.

But Tortorella gathered the Golden Knights at their bench during a TV timeout at 12:28.

Since replacing Bruce Cassidy on March 29, he has gone 20-4-1 in the regular season and playoffs combined. The biggest reason is that he has reminded his players of how good they are, boosting their confidence.

What did they need to hear in this moment?

“We have thoughts on how to play this team, and we’re down 2-0,” Tortorella said. “I don’t think we were playing that way, so we just discussed that.”

Defenseman Shea Theodore said Tortorella tried to calm the players.

“It’s loud,” Theodore said. “It’s rowdy. They were kind of all over us to start, so I liked his approach of just getting everyone in, getting everybody on the same page, and kind of just back to work.”

Forward Brett Howden said Tortorella told them to settle into their game.

“There’s no panic,” Howden said. “There’s a lot of hockey left, and we’ve proven that we can come back from deficits. So, just calmed us down and said just get to work and trust ourselves, trust our game, and it’ll come.”

Defenseman Brayden McNabb said Tortorella told them to stick to the game plan and stay patient.

“You know, they pressure, pressure a lot,” McNabb said. “We want to keep the puck going north and limit east-west plays, so he was just reiterating what we want to do and stay patient with our game plan.”

Theodore got Vegas on the board at 13:28, and goalie Carter Hart stopped Carolina forward Logan Stankoven on a breakaway at 16:27.

Forward Ivan Barbashev tied the game 2-2 just 30 seconds into the second period, and forward William Karlsson gave the Golden Knights a 3-2 lead at 4:35.

The game went back and forth. Jordan Staal tied it 3-3 at 12:42 of the second. Howden gave Vegas a 4-3 lead 1:21 into the third. Shayne Gostisbehere tied it 4-4 at 11:19 of the third.

But the Golden Knights stuck with it, and after Hart made a massive glove save on Carolina forward Seth Jarvis at 16:15 of the third, Tomas Hertl ended up scoring the winner at 16:36.

“We got to our game,” Theodore said. “We were attacking in the right spots. We were supporting the right spots. I think that really kind of changed the game from our group. We were able to play our style.

“Obviously, we knew they were going to come hard in the first, and sometimes it’s a little bit of a feeling out process. But once ‘Torts’ was able to calm us down a little bit, I think we felt a lot better about our game.”

The Hurricanes were 10-1 when scoring first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Now they’re 10-2, because the Golden Knights earned their seventh comeback win of the playoffs after racking up 21 in the regular season.

“We’ve managed to do it quite a bit this season and in the postseason,” forward Colton Sissons said. “Not an easy task going down early like that in this building in the Stanley Cup Final with the pressure the way it is, but resilient group, and we found a way.”

Game 2 is here Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“We’re a really good team, and I think we have a really good locker room,” Tortorella said. “I think they understand these type of situations because they’ve lived through them, and they’ve won, a lot of these guys, so that’s what you rest on.

“For me as a coach, I have all the confidence in the world, no matter where those flows go, we’re not going to get into a panic mode by any means.”