Hurricanes’ 4th line making ‘big’ impact in Eastern Final

MONTREAL -- If you're stunned to see Eric Robinson, Mark Jankowski and William Carrier at the top of the Carolina Hurricanes' scoring leaders in the Eastern Conference Final, then we welcome you to the series and hope you remain tuned in until the end.

Indeed, Carolina's fourth line is one of the main reasons the Hurricanes have a 2-1 lead on the Montreal Canadiens heading into Game 4 of the best-of-7 series at Bell Centre on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TNT, truTV, HBO MAX).

"They’ve been great," Carolina forward Nikolaj Ehlers said. "Especially in these last two games, they've really been setting the tone for our team, the way they go out there and play hard, play the right way every shift. They play a lot in the (offensive) zone, great momentum for the team.

“It's impressive, but they have been doing it all year. I'm not shocked."

Robinson has two goals and one assist, Jankowski has three assists and Carrier has two assists against the Canadiens. Robinson has a plus-18 even strength shot attempts differential. Carrier is plus-13; Jankowski is plus-8.

Carrier ranks second on the Hurricanes in hits per 60 minutes with 29.14, a shade behind center Jordan Staal's 29.50.

When on the ice together, Carolina's fourth line has outscored whoever they've playing against from Montreal 3-0, outshot the Canadiens 9-4, and owned a 27-16 edge in total shot attempts, according to NHL Stats.

It's all in limited ice time as they are 16th (Jankowski, 37:10), 17th (Robinson 33:39) and 18th (Carrier 30:53) among the 18 skaters who have played for the Hurricanes in the series.

"I mean, we have to (be effective)," Carrier said. "If we're not, you let down your team in the playoffs. Especially the way this team plays, it's hard on the body and you can't have guys playing huge minutes out there because they're forechecking as hard as I am doing it. So, it's big."

They've been so effective that coach Rod Brind'Amour has had no issue giving them a regular shift in overtime the past two games. They were key contributors to those wins.

Jankowski and Robinson were on the ice when Canadiens forward Oliver Kapanen gave the Hurricanes the puck in the neutral zone at 3:22 of overtime in Game 2. It led to Ehlers scoring off the rush seven seconds later, off a Jankowski pass with Robinson driving the net, for the 3-2 win.

They got the puck deep and changed before Lane Hutson's turnover led to Andrei Svechnikov's goal at 14:06 of overtime Monday that gave Carolina a second straight 3-2 win and a lead in the series.

"As a team you have to trust each other, and as a coach it's certainly valuable if you can trust your players," Brind'Amour said. "They're going to get out there against different lines, and if you can have that ability (to say), 'It’s OK, they're out there against whoever.' With that line, I think they can play against anybody. It certainly helps our overall group, and it helps me to sit back there and go, 'OK, go ahead,' when they're playing certainly at this level."

Robinson said that trust comes from everything they do before the big moment happens.

"It's more about doing things right, always playing the right way, being above the puck, playing hard, making sure we're finishing our checks, things like that," he said. "I think that gains the trust."

Thus far, it has led to big moments for the fourth line in the series.

In addition to what they've done in overtime, Robinson scored to give Carolina a 1-0 lead in Game 2, and he and Jankowski assisted on Shayne Gostisbehere's goal that made it 1-0 in Game 3.

That was directly after Carrier won a puck battle against two players to free the puck to Robinson so he could get it to Jankowski, who eventually set up Gostisbehere.

"Getting those big goals, I saw it early in my career, I lost the Cup (with the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018) when Washington's fourth line was effective, and it pushed me to bump my game up," Carrier said. "We had some big games when we won there in Vegas (in 2023). Those goals are huge, huge for the team."

The impact the fourth line is having for the Hurricanes also is putting pressure on the Canadiens’ fourth line to try to match it, but so far it has been a landslide in favor of Jankowski, Robinson and Carrier.

Montreal has already made one change to its fourth line, replacing Kapanen with Joe Veleno in Game 3. Kirby Dach and Zachary Bolduc were on the ice with Kapanen for Ehlers' overtime goal in Game 2. 

Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis didn't have enough trust to use Dach, Bolduc and Veleno together in overtime of Game 3. Bolduc played one shift in the extra period; Dach and Veleno remained on the bench.

"We've got to do a better job, and it's a good line over there," Veleno said. "It's not just a line that's going to be put out there. I think they can obviously be very effective, and they've shown that in these three games of the series. We've just got to pick it up and obviously match that."