Hurricanes remain ‘really comfortable in overtime’ in Game 3 win of East Final

MONTREAL -- The Carolina Hurricanes had outshot and outplayed the Montreal Canadiens again.

For the second straight game in the Eastern Conference Final, they had controlled a good chunk of the play, had a massive edge in shots on goal, but for the second straight game they were heading to overtime, where one shot could determine a winner and a loser.

And that’s just the way they like it.

“Roddy came in and said, ‘We got ‘em right where we want ‘em,” Taylor Hall said of coach Rod Brind’Amour’s message before overtime. 

And why not? With their 3-2 overtime win at Bell Centre on Monday, the Hurricanes are now 5-0 in OT in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, and with a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 series are two wins away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006.

Thanks to Andrei Svechnikov’s goal at 14:06 of overtime, the Hurricanes became the fourth team in NHL history to win each of its first five or more games that required overtime in a single playoff year, joining the 2023 Florida Panthers (seven OT wins), 2003 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (seven) and 2011 San Jose Sharks (five).

“I really think it’s the mentality of the team,” Svechnikov said. “We love tight games every time, we love that, and we love staying above them and not giving them a lot of chances.”

The Hurricanes didn’t give the Canadiens a lot of chances all night. After holding Montreal to 12 shots in Game 2 on Saturday -- a 3-2 overtime win -- Carolina allowed just 13 shots on goal Monday, two total after the second period.

And despite outshooting Montreal 32-12 in regulation, the game went to overtime.

No problem, Hall said.

“If you win 3-2 every game, you got 60 percent of the goals, we’ll take it,” Hall said. “If we have to go to overtime every game, we’re ready for that. I mean, we’re 5-0, so that’s a sign that’s were going to bend and not break and continue playing our game.”

As Hall mentioned, 3-2 seems to be the Hurricanes’ favorite overtime score. In fact, all five of their overtime wins this postseason -- one in the first round against the Ottawa Senators, two in the second round against the Philadelphia Flyers and two in this round -- have come by a 3-2 score, including one game that went double overtime.

“Obviously, we’re really comfortable in overtime and we trusted our game,” said Brind’Amour, whose team has its first lead in the conference final since 2006, when he was the captain of the Cup-winning team. “Especially tonight where clearly we were going pretty well, so really didn’t need to make many adjustments or anything, so just keep playing.”

Another key to Carolina’s success in overtime is not lamenting over the fact they have to go to overtime despite outplaying the Canadiens.

With the Bell Centre crowd at full throttle, Carolina took a 1-0 lead on a goal by defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere at 8:24 of the first period only to have Montreal’s Mike Matheson tie the game at 1-1 just over seven minutes later at 15:28.

Carolina went ahead 2-1 at 16:22 on Hall’s fourth goal of the playoffs, but Montreal tied it again at 4:43 of the second period on Lane Hutson’s power-play goal.

Montreal appeared to go ahead 3-2 with 11:32 left in the third period on a goal by Noah Dobson, but the Hurricanes challenged for offside and the goal was disallowed when it was determined Cole Caufield entered the zone before the puck 29 seconds earlier.

“Obviously, that’s a huge point in the game,” Brind’Amour said.

With the game tied, the Hurricanes kept firing pucks on Canadiens rookie goal Jakub Dobes, but he stopped 22 shots in a row after the Hall goal to get the game to overtime.

Again, no big deal.

“It’s about stepping on the gas (in overtime),” said Hall, who scored the overtime goal for Carolina in Game 2 of the second round against the Flyers. “You don’t feel sorry for yourself that that game hasn’t finished the way you want to. Sometimes it’s going to take that.”

Said Brind’Amour: “The guys didn’t get frustrated. I think we’ve been through this fairly often over a long period of time, so I think again it kind of goes back to trusting the game and trusting how we’re playing. I know it always doesn’t work out, but there’s no other way to do it. I think guys understand that.”

What it took was Svechnikov getting a wrist shot through traffic in front, including teammate Sebastian Aho, who was originally credited with the goal before it was changed to Svechnikov.

Asked if the puck hit him before it went in, Aho said, “I don’t think so. They have good technology so I’m sure they’ll figure it out. Honestly, I don’t really care. We’ll take the win and we’ll move forward.”

Now just two wins away from reaching the Cup Final, the Hurricanes feel good about their game and feel they are back to where they were before an 11-day break between sweeping the Flyers in the second round and dropping Game 1 to Montreal on May 21.

“I think there’s a lot to like about our game tonight, and you’re seeing that the rust is off,” Hall said. “We’re feeling good about playing hockey again. I mean, you’re off for (11) days, that first game felt like a million miles an hour, and now the game is starting to slow down, and you’re making reads without having to think about it. So it’s a good effort tonight.”