Golden Knights take Game 1 of Cup Final with Hertl's late goal

The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-4 in Tuesday's Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Tomas Hertl netted the game-winning goal with 3:24 left - recording his fourth of the postseason.

The Golden Knights have now won seven straight playoff games after sweeping the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference Final. With the victory, Vegas improves to 3-0 all-time in Stanley Cup Final openers.

Nikolaj Ehlers scored 25 seconds into the contest for Carolina and then added another just over 10 minutes later. Shea Theodore responded less than two minutes after Ehlers' tally.

Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson found the back of the net early in the second as the Golden Knights scored three unanswered. Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal evened the game before the third period.

"We knew they were gonna push in the first," Theodore told Sportsnet's Kyle Bukauskas postgame. "I felt like we weathered the storm. It was good to get one kinda late and make it 2-1. I thought we really pushed in the second, and we're a great third-period team, and we like our game."

Vegas' Brett Howden notched his playoff-leading 11th goal just 1:21 into the final frame. Carolina tied the contest for the second time with Shayne Gostisbehere's marker with under nine minutes left, setting the stage for Hertl's dramatic winner.

Carter Hart made 23 saves in the win, while Frederik Andersen stopped 18 of 23.

Road teams that trailed by multiple goals at any point in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final were 0-55 before Vegas' win, according to ESPN Insights.

The Hurricanes also dropped Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Montreal Canadiens before winning the next four contests to take the series. Carolina has only lost twice these playoffs.

The team that wins Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final has taken the series 76% of the time (81-25). A road team doing so is 21-11.

Game 2 is Thursday in Raleigh.