The Carolina Hurricanes are developing a pattern in their playoff series.
Carolina claimed their second consecutive overtime victory against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night, securing a 3-2 triumph in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals thanks to Andrei Svechnikov’s goal at 14:06 of the extra period.
The Hurricanes now hold a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-seven series as they prepare for Game 4 on Wednesday in Montreal.
Carolina previously captured a 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday when Nikolaj Ehlers found the back of the net in the extra frame.
Svechnikov fired a wrist shot from above the right faceoff circle that deflected off goaltender Jakub Dobes before finding the corner of the net. Officials initially credited Sebastian Aho with the goal on a deflection from the crease area, but later changed the scoring to give Svechnikov the winner.
“In the room, we don’t care who gets it done,” Aho said. “We just go in wave after wave.”
Shayne Gostisbehere and Taylor Hall provided the other goals for Carolina, while Frederik Andersen stopped 11 shots, just one more than his previous game total. The Hurricanes, who suffered a 6-2 defeat in Game 1 of the series, have compiled a 10-1 record in the postseason.
“There’s two really good teams going at it right now,” Aho said. “Just stick with the process and play our game and trust that it’ll give us the result we want at the end. That’s been the case the last two games, and just keep on going.”
Mike Matheson and Lane Hutson tallied for Montreal, which suffered consecutive losses for the first time in 17 games during their current postseason run. Dobes turned aside 35 shots while also recording an assist.
“You need everything working against a team like that,” Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said of Carolina. “At this stage, you’ve got to put it all together. Execution is part of that, jam is part of that. It’s not one thing, you’ve got to put it all together and I know we can.”
Carolina opened the scoring at 8:24 of the first period.
The puck emerged from the corner in Montreal’s zone to Carolina forward Mark Jankowski, who fired a shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle that deflected off Canadiens forward Kirby Dach’s stick blade. The puck found Gostisbehere as he moved through the left circle, and he converted with a one-timer.
Montreal evened the score 1-1 at 15:28 of the opening period.
The Canadiens won a puck battle behind Carolina’s net, with Ivan Demidov feeding the puck out front to Matheson, who beat Andersen’s glove with a wrist shot from above the right hashmarks.
The Hurricanes quickly regained their lead after Dobes made consecutive saves on Hall from close range, but Hall converted on his third attempt to put Carolina ahead 2-1 at 16:22 of the first period.
Montreal earned its second power play opportunity at 4:18 of the second period.
Cole Caufield delivered the puck to Hutson as they entered the Carolina zone, received it back, then passed to Hutson again just above the crease. Hutson redirected the puck home to level the score 2-2 at 4:43.
Noah Dobson seemingly scored at 8:27 of the third period for the Canadiens, but Carolina successfully challenged that Caufield was offside entering the zone 29 seconds before the goal.
“I feel like at times we’re playing too slow and sometimes we play at the right pace but we don’t execute,” St. Louis said. “We didn’t expect this to be easy, and we’re OK with that.”
