Hurricanes top Canadiens in OT, pad lead in Eastern wild-card race

RALEIGH, N.C. --The Carolina Hurricanes extended their lead in the Eastern Conference wild-card race after rallying for a 2-1 overtime win against the Montreal Canadiens at PNC Arena on Sunday.

The Hurricanes (42-26-7), who have won two in a row and four of their past five games, lead the Canadiens by three points for the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs and are two points behind the Pittsburgh Penguins for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Curtis McElhinney made 28 saves.
"Canadiens goalie Carey Price] was the phenomenal tonight," McElhinney said. "Obviously, he's the one of the best, if not the best, in the game for the last little while. It's always fun playing against him. I was just trying to keep pace with him. It's just nice to be on the right side of it."
[WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Price made 38 saves for the Canadiens (40-28-8), who had won three in a row and are two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card.
"This was our third game in four nights and I thought the fatigue factor caught up," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "I started seeing it midway through the second period. We just hung on through the third period. When you pick up seven points out of eight, it's a good week."

Andrei Svechnikov won it at 3:15 of overtime on a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Price five-hole.
"We are throwing [Svechnikov] out there in key situations now and in overtime," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I love the confidence he has. He's earned the right to be out there, that's the whole key. Huge goal."
Trevor van Riemsdyk tied it 1-1 at 14:21 of the third period after his shot from the right point deflected in off Canadiens defenseman Jordie Benn.
"They have a winger coming out, (so) just get it by that guy," van Riemsdyk said. "Then hopefully we've got bodies at the net, which we did, and we got lucky. It felt like one of those nights where it was going to take something like that to beat Price. He's an unbelievable goalie."

Paul Byron gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 14:58 of the first period. After Nate Thompson forced a turnover on Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen, Brendan Gallagher's shot redirected off Teravainen's stick to the front of the net for a tap-in by Byron.
Montreal outshot Carolina 9-4 in the second period, but McElhinney made a glove save on Gallagher at 7:54 with the Canadiens on a power play before stopping Thompson coming down the slot 30 seconds later.
"He's calm, there's no nerves to his game," Brind'Amour said. "I think that settles our group down. It's been like that all year. I can't say enough good things. He went toe-to-toe with the best goalie in the world and he certainly didn't take a back seat."
Price's best saves came in the third period when he stopped a five-hole attempt by Sebastian Aho on a breakaway at 4:29, then forced Teravainen wide on a breakaway at 11:06.

They said it

"It would have been nice to get the win and reward [Price] with two points. He stood on his head and played well for us. There were chances we could have capitalized on and we didn't, but you can't think about those." -- Canadiens captain Shea Weber
"I felt like it was a little hole there and I tried to shoot (at) it. I'm super confident right now."-- Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov

Need to know

Byron is the 10th Canadiens player with at least 30 points this season, the first time Montreal has had 10 players reach that mark since 2005-06. … Svechnikov is the youngest player in Carolina/Hartford Whalers history to score an overtime goal (18 years, 363 days). He has scored all 20 of his goals at even strength. … The Hurricanes are 12-3-1 in the second of back-to-back games this season, including winning 10 straight.

What's next

Canadiens:Host the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, TSN2, RDS, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Hurricanes:At the Washington Capitals on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)