Erasmus set the record for most goals in a single EHLP postseason, now at 13 following the win over the Wolves. Sultan Kulembek also played a part in the offensive outburst with a goal and two assists, and goaltender Frankie Smith made 35 saves on 37 shots to earn the win.

It was a surgical performance for the 87’s, scoring eight goals against the regular-season champions while limiting the Wolves’ high-octane offense. New Jersey Head Coach Cam Pape had a straightforward assessment of his team’s Game One win and their effort and both sides of the puck.

“It’s just continuing to move our feet non-stop. We’ve been harping on it all season, and it really came into play today,” Pape said.

Kulumbek opened the scoring at 3:36 of the first period as he intercepted a pass from the Wolves’ blue line and fired home a wrist shot for his second goal of the playoffs. The Wolves responded 25 seconds later; the 87’s failed to clear the zone as the puck caromed right to Wolves forward Robert Horejs, and he made a power move to the net and slid a puck past Smith.

Chris Erasmus scored two unanswered goals to give New Jersey the lead back. Right as an 87’s penalty was expiring, Erasmus took the puck into the zone for a one-on-one rush, used a defenseman as a screen and fired a shot past Wolves' goaltender Sumner Wood. A few minutes later, Alexandr Kolesnikov slid him a pass across the slot where Erasmus buried a one-timer for his 11th goal, also setting an EHLP record for most goals in a single postseason.

Luke Glover tacked on one more goal in the period; Alec Osher took a shot from the point and Glover deflected the puck by Wood to earn his first goal of the playoffs. Going into the second period, the Wolves put in Krystopher Richard to replace Wood.

New Jersey kept up the momentum despite the goalie change as Erasmus completed the hat trick early in the second period. As the 87’s were on the power play, he caught a pass at the top of the right circle and snapped a shot over the glove of Richard to make it a 5-1 game.

Reflecting on his Game One performance, Erasmus gave high praise to his teammates for getting him the puck throughout the game.

“I give huge credits to [Anthony] O’Brien, he’s able to find where I am on the ice and he puts it right onto my sweet spot,” Erasmus said.

Nathan Moore extended the lead with his first goal of the playoffs, taking a wrist shot from the blue line that went through traffic and sailed over Richard’s glove.

Sean Elbrecht made it 6-1 in the opening minute of the third period with his third goal of the playoffs. Cam Plum got one back for the Wolves with a one-timer from the low-slot, but the 87’s responded as Erasmus netted his fourth goal of the game with 4:16 left in regulation.

Pape talked about the four-goal performance from Erasmus. “He’s just playing within our systems. This is his second year here, he started getting comfortable in what he’s doing and it’s starting to show on the ice,” he said.

New Jersey is now one win away from its third EHLP title in five seasons, having won the Frozen Finals in 2021 and 2023.

In a best-of-three series, Pape stressed the importance of his team being able to follow up a big win by continuing their strong play while anticipating a much stronger performance by the Wolves in Game Two.

“We have to respect that they’re a very strong team and they’re going to come out much harder tomorrow. We just have to keep playing our game, we stay in our systems and do what we have to do, we’ll be fine,” Pape said.

Erasmus had a similar thought process when looking ahead to Game Two on Friday at 4 p.m.

“Honestly, we’re just going to press the reset button and go back out there like this game never happened, and we’ll show them what we can do,” he said.