The Carolina Hurricanes just wanted to be healthy going into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, even as it meant resting key players and stumbling down the stretch of the regular season.

The first payoff came Sunday.

Logan Stankoven scored two second-period goals in his first playoff game with Carolina as the Hurricanes dominated the New Jersey Devils 4-1 to open their first-round Eastern Conference series.

Carolina led 3-0, more than doubled New Jersey’s shot output and kept the pressure on in a strong start to the postseason.

“Obviously it was pretty clear that I think we were looking forward to this day for a bit now,” goaltender Frederik Andersen said.

Jalen Chatfield scored a first-period goal for the Hurricanes, who kept steady pressure on Devils netminder Jacob Markstrom. Andrei Svechnikov added an empty-net clincher late in the third.

Carolina had lost seven of its last eight regular-season games since clinching its seventh straight playoff trip on April 3, several coming with stars and key contributors out of the lineup. In that sense, it had been a long wait to get here, back on home ice with a rowdy home crowd in playoff mode.

“There’s always that worry that maybe you come out a little sluggish or whatever,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But obviously that wasn’t the case. And we were healthy, a healthy group. So it was a calculated risk maybe, but at least after Game 1, that was the right decision.”

Andersen finished with 23 saves for Carolina.

Nico Hischier got New Jersey’s only goal by taking Jesper Bratt’s cross-ice pass and blasting the puck past Andersen in the second.

Carolina finished with a 45-24 shot advantage.

Markstrom finished with 41 saves on what turned out to be a rough afternoon physically for the Devils.

Maple Leafs 6, Senators 2: Mitch Marner had a goal and two assists as Toronto beat Ottawa in Game 1 of their “Battle of Ontario” first-round playoff series.

William Nylander and John Tavares each had a goal and an assist, and Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Morgan Rielly and Matthew Knies also scored for Toronto.

Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig scored for Ottawa, and Linus Ullmark finished with 18 saves.

Golden Knights 4, Wild 2: Brett Howden scored what proved to be the winning goal early in the third period and hit an empty-netter to ice Vegas’ Game 1 win over Minnesota.

Matt Boldy scored twice for Minnesota in a losing effort.