Svechnikov's OT goal lifts Hurricanes past Canadiens in Game 3 of East Final

MONTREAL -- Andrei Svechnikov scored at 14:06 of overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final at Bell Centre on Monday.

Svechnikov took a pass from Seth Jarvis above the right circle and scored through a screen in front by Sebastian Aho.

The Hurricanes are 5-0 in overtime in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“I just really think it’s the mentality of the team,” Svechnikov said. “We love tight games and we love staying above them and we don’t give them a lot of chances, and I think that’s why we won that in overtime.”

Carolina, which also won 3-2 in overtime in Game 2, leads the best-of-7 series 2-1. Game 4 will be here on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, HBO MAX).

“Honestly, I thought we were creating a little bit more offense today and we played a good game, I thought,” Aho said. “Obviously, we couldn’t score until the very end, and that’s all that matters. We play to win these games and that was a big win.”

Shayne Gostisbehere and Taylor Hall scored for the Hurricanes, who are the No. 1 seed from the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference. Frederik Andersen made 11 saves.

“I think we’ve got a good group,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve got good players and they play hard for each other, and I think that shows.”

Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson scored for the Canadiens, who are the No. 3 seed from the Atlantic Division. Jakub Dobes made 35 saves.

“We definitely have another level, but they’ve got a good team and it’s two good teams going at it,” Hutson said.

The Hurricanes outshot the Canadiens 38-13, including 15-5 in the first period, when they built a 2-1 lead.

Gostisbehere put Carolina ahead 1-0 at 8:24 of the first. Eric Robinson got the puck during a scrum in the right corner and passed out to Mark Jankowski, whose shot was blocked by Kirby Dach and deflected to Gostisbehere, who then scored off the post past the outstretched blocker of Dobes from the left circle.

Matheson tied it 1-1 at 15:28. He took a pass in the high slot from Ivan Demidov, who was behind the net, and roofed a wrist shot over Andersen’s glove.

Hall put the Hurricanes back in front 2-1 at 16:22, knocking in his own rebound at the left post after his initial tap-in was stopped by the right pad of Dobes. K'Andre Miller started the play by chipping down from the right point to get to a puck dumped into the corner by Jackson Blake.

Hutson tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 4:43 of the second period. He worked a continuous give-and-go with Cole Caufield before finishing past the left pad of Andersen on what turned into a 2-on-1 rush.

“You need everything working against a team like that,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. “I don’t think you can just rely on the power play. You’ve got to defend when it’s time to defend, which I don’t think, especially in that first period, I don’t think we did a great job defending. You’re at this stage right now, you have to put it all together. Execution is part of that, you know, jam is part of that.

“There’s not one thing. We’ve just got to put it all together. I know we can. We didn’t expect this to be easy, and we’re OK with that.”

Noah Dobson appeared to give Montreal a 3-2 lead at 8:28 of the third period, but Carolina successfully challenged that Caufield was offside prior to the goal.

Nick Suzuki then had a chance to win it on a breakaway 35 seconds into overtime, but he shot wide of the net. Matheson hit the crossbar 25 seconds later.

“We’re two shots away from being up 3-0 in the series,” Matheson said. “So, I think it would be easy to possibly let yourself listen to the noise, but at the end of the day, we need to get four wins. And we’ve got a great opportunity to come back here in our building and get a win in Game 4 and see what happens.”

NOTES: The Hurricanes are the fourth team in NHL history to win at least their first five overtime games in a single postseason. The 2023 Florida Panthers and the 2003 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim each won their first seven overtime games, and the 2011 San Jose Sharks won their first five overtime games. ... Hutson has 15 (three goals, 12 assists) in 17 playoff games. He is the fourth defenseman in Canadiens history to get at least 15 points in a single postseason, joining Larry Robinson (three times, including 21 in 1978), Chris Chelios (19 in 1989) and J.C. Tremblay (17 in 1971).