Something unprecedented just happened between the Canadiens and the Hurricanes
Ivan Demidov just made it 4-0 Canadiens on Thursday night in Raleigh, and Frederik Andersen is finally human in these playoffs.
The Danish veteran had not allowed three goals in a single game all postseason. Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final was the moment it cracked open.
Carolina walked in 8-0 in the playoffs. Sweep of the Senators, sweep of the Flyers. The goaltending line read like fiction.
A .950 save percentage across eight games. Two shutouts. Five wins on the board. None of it survived contact with Montreal's top six.
Demidov's goal was the punctuation. The 20-year-old Russian had two goals in 14 playoff games before this one. He picked the loudest possible stage to find a third.
Martin St-Louis owned this matchup in the regular season too. The Canadiens swept Carolina 3-0, including a 7-5 road win on New Year's Day and a 5-2 home rout.
Frederik Andersen's perfect spring suddenly looks fragile
The Hurricanes have not trailed by four goals in any game this postseason. Eight contests, zero panic moments. Until the Raleigh crowd sat down at 4-0.
The young Russian finished the regular season with 19 goals and 62 points in 82 games. A +3 rating. Seven power play markers as a rookie. The ceiling keeps getting higher.
Carolina finished with 113 points and the second-best mark in the entire league. They allowed 2.9 goals per game. Four through how many minutes? Not many.
The bigger problem for Brind'Amour: his starter is the older option in front of Pyotr Kochetkov. Pulling him in Game 1 would be a statement no head coach wants to make this early.
Calder Trophy whispers followed Demidov around as a 20-year-old. This kind of moment is why. Big spot, biggest opponent, biggest goal of his young career to this point.
Montreal has not been to a conference final since 2021. The roster that walked into Raleigh tonight is barely recognizable from that one. Their Russian star was 15 years old.
One game does not decide a series. But one period can shake a goaltender's whole spring. Andersen has 60 minutes plus to figure out which version of himself shows up Saturday.
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LIVE
MAY 21, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Phillip Danault | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| William Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Jackson Blake | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||