The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-1 on Friday night to clinch the Eastern Conference Final in five games and earn their first trip to the Stanley Cup Final since 2006.

The Montreal Canadiens pounced for four first-period goals on slow-starting Carolina — coming off the longest postseason break in more than a century — and handed the Hurricanes their first loss of the playoffs with a 6-2 victory in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.

Carolina and Colorado have put on a clinic for how to start the playoffs.

The Carolina Hurricanes earned a double-overtime win against the Ottawa Senators on a night when they had an apparent winning goal overturned and a missed penalty shot in OT.

Jordan Staal and the Carolina Hurricanes have put together one of the most improbable comebacks in NHL history.

Florida coach Paul Maurice did not shake hands with the Carolina Hurricanes when the Eastern Conference final ended.

The Carolina Hurricanes switched starting goalies again for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals, going back to Frederik Andersen for Monday night’s win-or-else game against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

Frederik Andersen returned to the net and stopped 20 shots for his fifth career playoff shutout, Logan Stankoven got the only goal Carolina needed and the Hurricanes won their first Eastern Conference finals game in nearly 20 years by beating the Florida Panthers 3-0 on Monday night to stave off elimination.

The Carolina Hurricanes switched goalies for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals, starting Pyotr Kochetkov in net against the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

The Carolina Hurricanes have found themselves in the same dire position in the conference-final rematch against the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

The NHL’s playoff final four has a very familiar feel.

The Carolina Hurricanes are known around the NHL for shooting the puck on net from every angle and piling up the shots.

Andrei Svechnikov scored the go-ahead goal with just under two minutes left and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 5 on Thursday night, winning the second-round series and advancing to the Eastern Conference final for a second time in three years.

The Carolina Hurricanes return home for Game 3 of their second-round playoff series against the Washington Capitals having split the first two games on the road.

Sebastian Aho hammered a one-timer past Jacob Markstrom at 4:17 of the second overtime to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New Jersey Devils 5-4 on Tuesday night to clinch their first-round playoff series.

Goaltenders are in the spotlight for all four series resuming Sunday in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

The Carolina Hurricanes have acquired forwards Mikko Rantanen from the Colorado Avalanche and Taylor Hall from the Chicago Blackhawks in a three-team trade.

The Rangers and Hurricanes were among the top special teams units during the regular season.

The Carolina Hurricanes' depth proved key in pushing past the New York Islanders in the first round of the NHL playoffs.

Jack Drury scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and Stefan Noesen cleaned up a fluky puck bounce off the boards for another 8 seconds later as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Islanders 6-3.

Defenses around the NHL playoffs have been depleted by existing and new injuries, from Tampa Bay’s Mikhail Sergachev and Colorado’s Samuel Girard being out long term to Carolina’s Brett Pesce going down Monday night and Washington being down to minor leaguers to fill its many voids.

The Carolina Hurricanes could be close to getting back top-line forward Teuvo Teravainen from injury.

Dallas coach Peter DeBoer hasn’t been shy to point out Minnesota was one of the most penalized teams in the NHL this season,.

Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour and New York Islanders coach Lane Lambert were both irked by non-calls late in the Hurricanes 4-3 overtime win in Game 2 of that first-round playoff series.

Jesper Fast took a cross-ice pass from Jordan Staal and buried it past Ilya Sorokin at 5:03 of overtime to lilft the Carolina Hurricanes past the New York Islanders 4-3.

The Carolina Hurricanes will host the Washington Capitals in Saturday's night's Stadium Series outdoor game.

The Boston Bruins are atop the NHL standings and running away with the Atlantic Division going into the second half of the season.

Nashville goalie Juuse Saros made a franchise-record 64 saves and Mark Jankowski’s goal 5:06 into the third period gave the Predators their first lead in a 5-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The New York Rangers return home knowing they need a win at home to keep their postseason going.

Brendan Smith scored a short-handed goal late in the second period while Antti Raanta finished with 21 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 2-0, taking a 2-0 lead in their second-round playoff series.

Max Domi scored twice in the second period while Antti Raanta had 27 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 to win the deciding Game 7 of their first-round playoff series.

The NHL is wrapping up the first round of the playoffs with a rare treat.

The physicality of the NHL playoffs is creeping into the crease.

Sebastian Aho and Nino Niederreiter each scored twice and the Carolina Hurricanes overcame the early loss of goalie Antti Raanta to beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the first-round series.

The Carolina Hurricanes gave the Washington Capitals something to think about if the division rivals meet in the playoffs.

Ethan Bear scored the game’s first goal with 5:40 left and Sebastian Aho added an empty-netter to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Colorado Avalanche 2-0 on Thursday night.

The NHL is set to resume Tuesday with three games on the schedule after an extended holiday break.

The Carolina Hurricanes became the latest NHL club to be hit with a coronavirus outbreak.

The Carolina Hurricanes have agreed to terms on an eight-year contract with forward Andrei Svechnikov.

The New York Rangers have reached an agreement to hire Gerard Gallant as their next coach, a person with knowledge of the move tells The Associated Press.

Andrei Vasilevskiy closed another postseason series by turning away every shot.

Luke Kunin scored his second goal at 16:10 of the second overtime,and the Nashville Predators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 Sunday to tie the first-round series 2-2.

Jordan Staal scored twice and Nino Niederreiter beat Juuse Saros for the go-ahead goal early in the third period, helping the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 win over the Nashville Predators in the first game of the teams' first-round playoff series.

The NHL is relaxing virus protocols during the playoffs for teams that reach a vaccination threshold.

The NHL is in the most difficult position among the four major North American professional sports leagues on vaccinations because seven of its teams are based in Canada.

(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)With COVID-19 problems cropping up and four teams currently idled, the NHL has revised its virus protocols in a bid to keep the shortened season on track. Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league is mindful there might be “more aggressive transmission of the virus and will continue to make adjustments" to protocols. That's a key tweak to the original interpretation of the rule preventing early arrivals, which didn't go over well with some players. The moves were made as the NHL sees some concerning trends, including 40 players on the COVID-19 unavailable list. Bettman said fewer than half the players in protocol have been because of a confirmed positive test and many of those were asymptomatic.

For Peter Laviolette, his Washington Capitals will keep playing for the next week without four prominent players who broke the rules. There's no indication the Capitals are being shut down, though they will have to play the next four games without captain Alex Ovechkin, No. The NHL defers to local authorities, and the minimum four games for the Capitals players relates to the District of Columbia's quarantine regulations. The Hurricanes have so far had three games postponed because of their outbreak and won't play for at least a week. I think that’s really what we’re going to find out.”___AP Sports Writers Aaron Beard and Stephen Hawkins contributed.

In a unique situation like this, youre going from not playing to playing playoff-style hockey, so youve got to embrace the grind mentally, physically.This is a different kind of grind after four-plus months off the ice. Eddie Olczyk won and lost one best-of-five series early in his playing career with Chicago and remembers the nerves of being 18 and 19 years old in those moments. Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour understands that urgency despite being drafted two years after the NHL moved to all best-of-seven series. His Hurricanes face the Rangers, whose president, John Davidson, won the only two best-of-five series he played in with New York. In a short series, Quenneville said, anything can happen.___AP Hockey Writer John Wawrow contributed to this report.