The Carolina Hurricanes celebrate a goal with their fans during Saturday's Stanley Cup Playoff game win over Ottawa in Raleigh, N.C. (AP photo)

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall scored, and Frederik Andersen came through with a big third-period performance in net to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators 2-0 on Saturday to open their first-round playoff series.

Carolina can take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series on Monday night in Raleigh.

Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour had gone with Andersen’s veteran experience as the starter over Brandon Bussi, and it paid off for the Eastern Conference’s top seed.

“We have good options and both guys have played well and we have confidence in both guys,” Brind’Amour said. “But clearly experience I think won out, and he looked like he knew what he was doing.”

Andersen finished with 22 saves, including back-to-back stops on a third-period power play that had Ottawa buzzing with quality chances in a 1-0 game. One of those was initially ruled a tying goal on Drake Batherson’s rebound attempt at the top of the crease, only for a replay review to overturn the call in showing Andersen had gloved a loose puck as it went airborne near the post and kept it from fully crossing the goal line.

Moments later, he had another when Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk had position at the top of the crease, only for Andersen to fall backward and make the stop with his legs in a sequence that had Hurricanes fans roaring “Freddie! Freddie!”

“It’s pretty mind-blowing how loud it gets and how fun it is to play here,” Andersen said.

By the final moments, Andersen and the Hurricanes were holding up against Ottawa spending most of the last 2 1/2 minutes with a 6-on-4 advantage after pulling Linus Ullmark for the extra attacker with the Senators on the power play.

FLYERS 3, PENGUINS 2

Travis Sanheim scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Philadelphia Flyers announced their return to the playoffs with win over Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh.

Philadelphia pulled off a stunner in the opener when Sanheim split a pair of Penguins at the top of the zone, glided down the slot and then fired the puck by Stuart Skinner. Porter Martone, the Flyers’ 19-year-old rookie forward, provided some needed insurance when he beat Skinner on a wrist shot with 2:37 to play.

Game 2 is in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Jamie Drysdale also scored for the Flyers, who hardly appeared intimidated by an electric PPG Paints Arena crowd buzzing by Pittsburgh’s first playoff appearance since 2022. Dan Vladar stopped 14 shots to pick up the first postseason win of his six-year career.

WESETERN CONFERENCE

WILD 6, STARS 1

Matt Boldy had two goals with an assist, Joel Ericksson Ek scored two power-play goals and rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt stopped 26 shots in his postseason debut to help the Minnesota Wild beat the Dallas Stars 6-1 on Saturday in Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series.

Kirill Kaprizov added a goal and two assists and Mats Zuccarello had three helpers for the Wild, who have lost nine consecutive playoff series since 2015. This was an impressive start in a long-expected matchup of Central Division rivals who finished behind Presidents’ Trophy winner Colorado.

Even though the Stars have made the West final each of the past three seasons, they are 1-7 in Game 1s at home during that span.

Game 2 is Monday night in Dallas.

Dallas allowed the first goal in 15 of its 18 playoff games last year, and gave up three power-play goals in a 5-4 win over the Wild just nine days earlier. The Stars trailed for good only 5 1/2 minutes into the series when Ericksson Ek scored on a pass from Boldy to make it 1-0. Ericksson Ek added another power-play goal past Jake Oettinger in the third.