RALEIGH, N.C. — So much for a low-scoring game.

This Stanley Cup Final pits the best defensive team in the Eastern Conference through three rounds — Carolina and its 1.62 goals against per game — vs. the best defensive team in the Western Conference through three rounds — Vegas and its 2.38 goals against per game, not to mention the two goalies with the best save percentage in the league through three rounds — Frederik Andersen (.931) vs. Carter Hart (.924).

After eight combined goals in the first 56 minutes, Tomas Hertl snapped a 4-4 tie with 3:24 left with a snipe from between the circles to help lead the Golden Knights to a come-from-behind 5-4 win in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Lenovo Center.

Hertl’s goal came just 19 seconds after Hart robbed a snakebitten Seth Jarvis.

The Golden Knights stormed back from a 2-0 lead, at one point taking a 4-3 lead early in the third period on Brett Howden’s league-leading 11th goal until, after Logan Stankoven won a 50-50 puck off a faceoff, Shayne Gostisbehere tied the score with a blast past Hart.

The Golden Knights won their seventh consecutive game and, with the return of Jeremy Lauzon from injury, it was the first time since opening night that they were completely healthy. Vegas handed Carolina only its second loss in 14 playoff games.

Nikolaj Ehlers scored two first-period goals, including becoming the second player on record since 1997-98 to score on the first shot of the game (25 seconds in). Shea Theodore then scored on a deflected shot — the first of three goals on five shots by the Golden Knights as they stormed back to take a 3-2 lead early in the second on goals by Ivan Barbashev and William Karlsson.

Barbashev’s goal came 30 seconds into the second, making this the first Stanley Cup Final game in history where there was a goal in the opening 30 seconds of the first two periods.

But Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal tied the game at 3-3 with his first Stanley Cup Final goal in 6,202 days.

Theodore and Brayden McNabb had three points each.

Teams that win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final go on to win the Cup 76.4 percent of the time (81-25), including a 60-14 (.811) record when the home team takes the first game and 21-11 (.656) as the road team.

Game 2 is Thursday night back in Raleigh before the series heads to Sin City.

Ehlers strikes twice in the first

For years, the Hurricanes played with perfect structure in the playoffs, only to be stopped short by a glaring flaw: they lacked a game-breaker capable of shattering a game wide open. When Andrei Svechnikov tore his ACL three years ago, Florida swept them. Last year, the Panthers beat them again, winning in five games. Carolina needed an antidote to their playoff heartbreak, so they spent $51 million last summer to bring in Ehlers.

On Tuesday night, it took exactly 25 seconds for Ehlers to strike.

Rocketing down the ice on Carolina’s first shift of the Stanley Cup Final on a two-on-one, Ehlers fired the game’s first shot into the back of the net. By the time he buried a breakaway later in the period to make it 2-0, the Lenovo Center was in a frenzy. He became the third Dane ever to score on hockey’s biggest stage, logging the fastest Final opener since 1976 and matching a first-period multi-goal feat not seen since Al MacInnis in 1989. The Canes finally have their game-breaker.

Jalen Chatfield assisted on both of Ehlers’ first-period goals, the second on a beautiful headman chip when Ehlers cherry-picked behind Vegas’ defense. He became the 10th defenseman in NHL history to record multiple points in the opening period of a Stanley Cup Final, and the second in the past 33 years. — Russo

Off night for the goalies

A Conn Smythe Trophy is not lost in one game, but the playoff MVP chances of Frederik Andersen and Carter Hart took a hit with equally shaky performances to start the Stanley Cup Final.

Andersen, seen as a Conn Smythe front-runner by many after three playoff rounds, gave up three goals on his first eight shots against in Game 1 and seemed to be fighting it, especially in the second period.

Andersen was also shaky in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference final with Montreal before completely shutting down the Canadiens the rest of that series.

It has been an emotional past week for the veteran goalie, dealing with the death of his longtime agent, Claude Lemieux.

Hart, meanwhile, gave up a goal on the opening shot of the Cup Final. But it’s Staal’s 3-3 goal 12:42 into the second period that Hart needed to have. It was a great shot by Staal from the top of the faceoff circle, but that’s a save all day long by top NHL goalies. And while it was probably distracting to see Nic Dowd fall to block the shot just as Shayne Gostisbehere shot it, the 4-4 goal that beat Hart short side wasn’t pretty, either.

Hart was dominant in the Western Conference final, very much outplaying his Avalanche goalie counterparts, and that was a major reason for the four-game sweep. But Tuesday night was not his finest. — LeBrun 

Eichel vs. Staal

The matchup between Vegas’ top line, centered by Jack Eichel, and Carolina’s shutdown line, centered by Staal, was expected to be one of the biggest factors of the Cup Final. Through one game, it didn’t disappoint. The lines saw plenty of each other on Tuesday night, with Staal’s line coming out on top in Round 1.

Vegas coach John Tortorella started the game with Eichel, Barbashev and Pavel Dorofeyev. Rod Brind’Amour countered for Carolina with Staal, Ehlers and Jordan Martinook, and they scored on the opening shift. The line struck again in the first period when Chatfield intercepted Eichel’s pass at the Carolina blue line and sprung Ehlers for another breakaway goal.

Eichel’s line punched back early in the second period, tying the game 2-2 with a goal by Barbashev. It was a great shift by Vegas’ No. 1 center. He stole the puck along the wall as Carolina attempted to break it out of the zone, then retrieved his own missed shot and fed a pass to Barbashev in the slot. Barbashev rang his shot off the post and in for his sixth goal of the playoffs.

Staal answered with a goal of his own midway through the second period to tie the game 3-3. It was a snipe of a shot over Hart’s blocker following a giveaway by Vegas high in the zone. The fingerprints of this matchup were all over Tuesday’s game, on both ends of the ice, and that’s likely to continue. — Granger

Canes’ top line blanked

As good as the Stankoven line has been with Taylor Hall and Jackson Blake all postseason, it’s been perplexing how Carolina’s top line really hasn’t broken out.

Jarvis entered the game tied as the team’s fifth-leading scorer and Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho tied for seventh.

“I’d love to have more production,” Brind’Amour said Tuesday morning. “We haven’t needed it yet – fortunately for us, but obviously the amount of minutes they play and the situations they play, we’re going to need them to be on the scoresheet.”

Well, the trio finished the game with no points and six combined shots. Jarvis also flubbed a shot at a wide-open net on a third-period power play and was robbed with 3:43 left by Hart’s quick glove. Nineteen seconds later, Hertl scored. — Russo 

McNabb’s big night

Tuesday night was the 1,005th NHL game of McNabb’s career, including the regular season and playoffs. It was his first with three assists.

McNabb has served as the defensive anchor in Vegas for nine seasons, but isn’t the most offensively inclined blueliner. The puck was following him in Game 1, and he made the most of it with assists on goals by Theodore, Barbashev and Howden.

The bruising defender had only two multi-assist playoff games in his 14-year career, and had only one three-point game of any kind (in the regular season against the Arizona Coyotes on April 9, 2022).

He became the seventh different defenseman in NHL history to record three points in Game 1 of a Stanley Cup Final, and the second in the past 33 years, alongside Rob Blake.— Granger

This story will be updated.