"For me, it was obviously the first start in the playoffs in the NHL," Raanta said. "I was just trying to focus on the things that have (allowed me) to be successful. It was working nicely. But it's only one game, one win, and now it's just regrouping and getting ready for Wednesday."
Game 2 will be played here on Wednesday.
Raanta got the start in place of Frederik Andersen, who played 52 regular-season games (51 starts) for the Hurricanes but missed the final six with a lower-body injury and was ruled out on Sunday. Raanta entered the game with five career relief appearances in the postseason, two with the Arizona Coyotes in 2020 and three with the New York Rangers in 2016.
"'Rants' played really well, made some big save," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Then we got our game going a little bit in the second."
RELATED: [Complete Hurricanes vs. Bruins series coverage]
Vincent Trocheck and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist, and Nino Niederreiter, Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov scored for Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division.
Taylor Hall scored for Boston, the first wild card in the East. Linus Ullmark made 20 saves in his playoff debut.
The Bruins outshot the Hurricanes 9-1 in the first six minutes. Carolina defenseman Brendan Smith cleared a puck from the goal line after Craig Smith's shot at 5:03 trickled behind Raanta, who then stopped consecutive shots 32 seconds later against Derek Forbort and Charlie Coyle to keep the game scoreless.
"Their goalie made saves, and there's some pucks around the front of the net we just couldn't locate or take the right path to, but they were there," Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. "[Raanta] is paid to play, too, and he did a good job and he held them in the game early on. ... We were ready to play, just couldn't put anything in the net early on."
Jarvis, a 20-year-old rookie, gave Carolina a 1-0 lead at 16:28 of the second period when he tipped Jaccob Slavin's one-timer from the right point.
Niederreiter extended it to 2-0 at 18:38 on a wrist shot from above the left face-off circle through a screen by Jordan Staal.
"There was a lot of net-front going on with Jordan," Niederreiter said. "When he's the big man in front, nobody sees anything. I was just trying to get the puck to the net and luckily it went in. It was definitely a big goal."