Comfort In Close Contests Fueling Canes' OT Success

MONTREAL - After 60 minutes of a Game 3 that followed an eerily similar script to the opening hour of Game 2, the Carolina Hurricanes found themselves in familiar territory.

Once again, nearly every measurable metric was tilted in their favor. Once again, the scoreboard told a different story at the third break. And once again, they were headed to overtime, a goal away from either jubilation and a series lead, or being left to wonder where a once-dominant showing went awry.

But a team that entered the night 4-0 in overtime during these playoffs knew it was on the right track, scoreboard be damned.

"Roddy came in and said, 'We've got 'em where we want 'em,'" said Taylor Hall of the intermission message.

Just over 14 minutes after the puck dropped for the teams' eighth period in two games, the Canes did what they've done so steadily throughout the postseason, with Andrei Svechnikov's long-range wrist shot finding twine to silence a raucous Bell Centre and lift the Canes to a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference Final.

Svechnikov's winner was a thunderbolt delivered on the back of his team's response to a nervy first minute that featured a breakaway and a hit post for Montreal. Instead of getting antsy, the Canes settled down and dialed in. The result? A single shot on target and seven icings in 14 minutes and change for the Canadiens.

"I think we trusted our game. Especially tonight, where it was clear we were going pretty well," said Rod Brind'Amour. "We didn’t really need to make many adjustments or anything. We just had to keep playing. It doesn’t always work out, but tonight it did."

It doesn’t always work out, but tonight it did.

That uncertainty might scare some teams into deviating from their game plan in overtime, reaching so far for a game-winner that they make mistakes they can't correct. Carolina, meanwhile, finds strength in consistency, even when the team hasn't gotten the results it would like through 60 minutes.

Throughout their eight-year streak of playoff appearances, the Canes have been both lauded and criticized for a rigid dedication to their style of play, but it's got them on the right track with a 10-1 record thus far, including victories in winner-take-all scenarios against Ottawa, Philadelphia, and now Montreal.

"It's about stepping on the gas. You don't feel sorry for yourself that the game hasn't finished the way you want it to; sometimes it's going to take that," said Hall. "If you win 3-2 every game, you've got 60% of the goals, we'll take it. If we have to go to overtime every game, we're ready for that. I mean, we're 5-0 in overtime now, so that's a sign that we're going to bend, not break, and continue playing our game."

Of course, the system is only part of the equation. Execution and mentality matter, too, and a weathered Hurricanes lineup is leaning on lessons learned in past postseasons to navigate whatever comes their way.

“I think (it was) pretty light," said Seth Jarvis of the locker room mood following Monday's third period. "We have a lot of experience. We have a lot of guys who have been around for a long time and in these situations. It’s pretty easy just to keep it light in there. It’s the greatest moment of all of our lives. This is the best time. So you kind of just go into OT, and you want to make the memories. You’re not going to win them all. Thankfully, we have, but just being prepared for no matter what the outcome is, you stay ready for the next game, the next shift, and hopefully it goes your way.”

Even for the best teams, the road to the Stanley Cup is paved with pitfalls. A bounce here, a missed pass there, and championship aspirations begin to crack under the weight of tough-luck losses.

Nowhere is that knife-edge more apparent than in playoff overtime. But in 2026, the Canes have turned that cauldron of nerves into their dominant domain, becoming just the fourth team to win each of its first five or more overtime games in a single postseason.

"In all of those (overtime) games, we feel like we've had control, and I think for every overtime except for one against Philadelphia, we controlled play," said Hall. "We don't have to change a lot, we feel like we're fresher, and that's going to help us in the end."

As the pressure rises, so do the Hurricanes.

"I really think it’s just the mentality of our team," said Svechnikov. "We love tight games. Every time. We love them. We love staying above them and not giving them a lot of chances. I think that’s why we won in overtime."