The Carolina Hurricanes tussled with Ottawa in pressure-packed games, and played with little open ice and a growing physical testiness, to open the NHL playoffs. Years of postseason experience showed in taking a first-round sweep.
The Eastern Conference's top seed closed out the Senators 4-2 in Saturday's Game 4 of the best-of-7 series. It capped a series that saw Carolina's top line and power play go quiet, along with the team spending too much time in the penalty box. Yet the Hurricanes offset that with a dominating showing from its second line of Logan Stankoven, Taylor Hall and Jackson Blake; a nearly flawless penalty kill and elite goaltending from Frederik Andersen.
“Like we’ve kind of talked about all year, whatever way the game goes, our group can handle it,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour, who has won at least one postseason series in all eight of his seasons. “I didn’t love all the penalties. There’s a fine line you’ve got to try to balance. I don’t know that we did a great job there. But I loved just the compete level of our group from Game 1 all the way through. Pretty impressive.”
The Hurricanes' playoff run under Brind'Amour goes back to an unexpected run to the Eastern Conference Final in 2019 after a nine-year postseason drought. They've been a postseason fixture ever since, reaching the Eastern final in two of the past three seasons, losing to Florida each time.
Notably in 2023, they lost four one-goal games to the Panthers in a series that included a four-overtime thriller, an outcome that Brind'Amour said he didn't regard like a traditional sweep because of how tight the series was.
Fast forward three years, and the Hurricanes largely stood on the other side of that scenario. They never led by more than two goals and survived a double-overtime Game 2 before becoming the first team to never trail in a first-round series since the Detroit Red Wings beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2009, according to ESPN Insights.
“For it to be this tight of a series and not go our way, every game, it's really tough,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk told reporters after Game 4.
The Hurricanes' experience showed in several ways as they improved to 11-5 in closeout games under Brind'Amour, winning six of their last seven.
Andersen got the call with Brind'Amour opting for the 36-year-old's veteran presence over former waiver pickup Brandon Bussi. Andersen had an opening-game shutout on the way to stopping 105 of 110 shots (.955 save percentage) while positing a 1.10 goals-against average, and the Hurricanes needed him with Ottawa's Linus Ullmark (.932, 2.03) looking terrific in the other crease.
The top line of Sebastian Aho, Seth Jarvis and Andrei Svechnikov managed to produce what Brind'Amour colloquially called “diddly squat” on the scoresheet. Jarvis (32) and Svechnikov (31) led the team in regular-season goals but didn't find the net, Svechnikov didn't tally a point, and two of Aho's three goals were empty-net clinchers in Game 4.
But the Stankoven-Hall-Blake line more than made up for it in a reminder of Carolina's scoring depth. Stankoven scored in all four games, including the go-ahead goal on a third-period power play in Game 4. Blake had the Game 3 winner to go with three assists, while Hall had a team-best seven points.
“I couldn't imagine being in a better spot teamwise,” said Hall, a former Hart Trophy winner as league MVP. “Just the mix of guys that we have and having Rod as a coach has been awesome for me personally, the way he pushes buttons — it’s not really pushing buttons, but he gets the most out of his players.”
And then there was the penalty kill, which got plenty of practice.
Carolina went 20 for 21 (95.2%) in a series that got progressively chippier, notably with multiple scrums breaking out in a wild second period of Game 4. Captain Jordan Staal said the Hurricanes “probably went a little cuckoo” in responding to hard hits and getting caught up in the period's testy vibes.
Carolina was called for eight of its 11 penalties in the second, yet the PK allowed only Drake Batherson's tying redirect. And the Hurricanes settled down in the third with the goal of getting back to controlling 5-on-5 play, committing one penalty for too many men on the ice.
“It was a very mature third period from us,” Aho said.
As for health, winger Nikolaj Ehlers was a late scratch for Game 4 due to a lower-body injury, while defenseman Alexander Nikishin was knocked from Game 4 in the second period with a concussion on a jarring hit from Ottawa's Tyler Kleven. With Carolina being the first playoff team to advance, the Hurricanes will have several days to regroup before facing the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh winner in Round 2.
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) embraces Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) after Game 4 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff hockey series, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Ottawa, Ontario. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press via AP)
Carolina Hurricanes' Logan Stankoven (22) celebrates scoring on Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark (35) during the third period in Game 4 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff hockey series, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Ottawa, Ontario. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
Carolina Hurricanes' Sebastian Aho (20) celebrates scoring an empty net goal against the Ottawa Senators in the third period in Game 4 of a first-round NHL Stanley Cup playoff hockey series, Saturday, April 25, 2026, in Ottawa, Ontario. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Jara Emtage-Cave started playing rugby as a 13-year-old in Barbados, never really imagining how the sport might shape her world.
She graduated from the flag program to full contact at age 16, continued her career as an undergrad on Stanford's club team and this weekend played on one of more than two dozen teams competing in Indianapolis at the College Rugby Association of America championship. But for Emtage-Cave and the others, there's a potentially bigger prize in Indy than merely winning a title. They could help turn women's rugby into a full-fledged NCAA championship sport.
“I like the physicality because I think it's one of the few contact sports and full contact sports for women,” said Emtage-Cave, now a 24-year-old grad student at Stanford. “So the physicality is something I find you just don't get anywhere else."
Certainly, things are changing rapidly in the sport with the addition of an American professional league and the Olympic-level success. And having a popular personality like Ilona Maher, an Olympic bronze medalist, “Dancing with the Stars” runner-up and social media celebrity, helps give rugby a larger platform, too.
But at the grassroots level, those tracking interest in rugby such as NCAA executive Gretchen Miron and USA Rugby CEO Bill Goren readily acknowledge that more youth and prep programs have helped fuel a surging interest that has veteran players and even relative newcomers expressing similar sentiments to those of Emtage-Cave.
“People are intrigued by that (physicality) and want to play that way at the college level,” said Miron, director of education and external engagement in the NCAA's Office of Inclusion. “We do see some recruits who have played rugby in high school or the youth space, but we also have a lot of interest from people who are on campus and try rugby for the first time. Rugby has a history of having people that are newer to the game compete in college and really fall in love with it.”
Rugby, like soccer, has been popular internationally for centuries. But in the U.S., it struggled to gain a foothold over more popular sports. That seems to be changing quickly.
Rugby was reinstituted as an Olympic sport in 2016, and the U.S. is set to host the 2031 and 2033 men's and women's Rugby World Cups, though neither the dates nor host sites has been announced.
Organizers believe those events can serve as a launching pad to build momentum, much like the boost that American soccer received from hosting the 1994 FIFA Men's World Cup and 1999 and 2003 FIFA Women's World Cups.
“It took about 25 to 30 years for soccer to get where it's at today, in the U.S.,” Goren said, pointing to the impact of those World Cups. “Back then, I knew a small handful of people that played soccer, but I didn't. It was kind of a niche sport. Today every kid across the country seems to play soccer as an entry-level sport. We're behind that (curve), but, obviously, that's the path we want to be on.”
The indications that rugby is following a similar course do exist, though.
While Maher has emerged as the sport's top female star, recent NFL draft picks such as Indianapolis Colts defensive end Laiatu Latu and Chicago Bears tight end Sam Roush both played rugby in high school. The Colts even gave Daniel Adongo, a Kenyan rugby player who had not played American football, a three-year chance to show he could become an NFL linebacker.
Today, 30 women's college teams have varsity-sanctioned programs, leaving them 10 short of potentially moving from an emerging sport to a championship sport like women's wrestling and perhaps soon women's flag football.
But safety still seems to be a concern for parents.
While many believe soccer is less injury-prone than American football, that opinion doesn't necessarily translate to rugby.
Supporters insist the lack of helmets and shoulder pads likely reduces injuries because of fewer players launching themselves to make tackles, and a rule lowering the tackle zone has eliminated some once-prevalent injuries such as broken noses.
“It used to be you would tackle at the shoulders, but they moved that to now where it's sternum height,” Emtage-Cave said. “So it's very unlikely your face is going to be involved in a tackle.”
Emtage-Cave first entered the sport through Barbados' national program.
Bryce Campbell, the general manager of Kuntz Stadium, switched from football to rugby at the urging of his friends in middle school because he was too big to run the football in the youth league. At Indianapolis Cathedral High School, he became fully committed to rugby and at Indiana University he won the Rudy Scholz Award winner as the nation's top college men's player.
That sent him on a globe-trotting career, which included playing on America's 2019 World Cup team, competing on four different continents and now managing this weekend's two-day women's sevens tournament, featuring fast-paced 14-minute games, and next weekend's men's final four.
Goren will attend both events, perhaps with an eye toward making Indianapolis a regular stop for rugby tourneys, something that sounds like music to Campbell's ears.
“It's got deep roots and deep traditions in colleges across the country and it's kind of professionalized over the past few years,” he said. “It's taken some of the same steps soccer did, and with the World Cup coming, that's kind of the North Star of all this. There's a lot more investment coming into the game, not only at the professional level, but at the youth level and more people are getting involved.”
Organizers hope several thousand fans meander these two weekends through Kuntz Stadium's two fields, just a few miles down the road from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a venue where automotive innovations became prominent features on passenger cars, and across the street from Bush Stadium, a minor league baseball stadium that helped launch the careers of Hall of Famers such as Hank Aaron and Randy Johnson before being converted into an apartment complex.
And here, players such as Emtage-Cave are embarking on their own trail-blazing journey to help a wildly popular international sport gain traction in America.
“I think it's a great opportunity to become a championship sport, and I definitely feel like more teams should push to elevate to varsity status,” she said. “I do think there are demands that come with being a varsity team that a lot of clubs just don't have the capacity for, but I think that's just a matter of funding and expertise in women's rugby and I think that should be our goal.”
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
A player from Davenport tries to evade tacklers from Life University during a preliminary round game Saturday, April 25, 2026, at the College Rugby Association of America championships being held in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Mike Marot)
