NHL Daily – Kicking Off In The East

NHL News and Notes from Sunday, April 20th, 2025

News

The Washington Capitals announced that they have re-signed forward Bogdan Trineyev to a one-year, two-way contract. (Washington Capitals)

In Carolina, the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs open up in the east as the Hurricanes play host to the New Jersey Devils for Game 1 of their first round series, and in the first period the Hurricanes strike early as Jalen Chatfield scored 2:24 into the game to take the 1-0 lead. At the end of the first period, the Hurricanes outshot the Devils 17-5.

In the second period Logan Stankoven scored a pair of goals, including a powerplay goal to give the Hurricanes the 3-0 lead. However, the Devils would end the shutout bid for Frederik Andersen as Nico Hischier scored to get the Devils back within one. Unfortunately for the Devils, that would be the only positive to this game. In the second period defenseman Brenden Dillon left the game due to injury, and in the third period while in the same play, defenseman Luke Hughes suffered an upper body injury and forward Cody Glass was accidently slashed by teammate Jacob Markstrom resulting in a lower body injury.

Also in the third period, the Hurricanes closed it out as Andrei Svechnikov scored an empty netter to give the Hurricanes the 4-1 victory over the Devils to take Game 1. The Hurricanes outshot the Devils 45-24.

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In Toronto, the Maple Leafs play host to the Ottawa Senators for Game 1 of the Battle of Ontario, and in the first period the Leafs would get out on top first as both Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Mitch Marner scored to give the Leafs the 2-0 lead. However, before the end of the first period, Drake Batherson scored to get the Senators on the board and back within one.

In the second period John Tavares scored while on the powerplay to give the Leafs their two goal lead back. The penalty woes continued for the Senators as a pair of penalties put them down two players, and William Nylander scored with the two-man advantage to grow the Leafs lead to three. Then in the third period Ridly Greig scored to get the Senators back within two, but Morgan Reilly scored 44 seconds later to retake the three goal lead for the Leafs. Later in the third period Matthew Knies scored on the powerplay to give the Maple Leafs the 6-2 victory over the Senators to take Game 1.

To end the game there would be some fireworks between both teams resulting in a total of 20 penalty minutes amongst 10 players.

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To close out the night, the Vegas Golden Knights play host to the Minnesota Wild for the first game of their first round series, and in the first period Tomas Hertl scored with less than five minutes left in the period to give the Knights the 1-0 lead, but moments later Matt Boldy scored to tie the game at one for the Wild. In the second period on the lone powerplay of the game so far, Pavel Dorofeyev scored his first career playoff goal to give the Knights the 2-1 lead.

Then in the third period, Brett Howden scored to grow the Knights lead to two. However, with a little over 8 minutes left in regulation, Boldy scored his second of the game to get the Wild back within one. With a tenth of a second left, Howden would get the empty netter to give the Golden Knights the 4-2 victory over the Wild to take Game 1.

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