Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers celebrates his overtime goal against the Canadiens on Saturday night. The third-round playoff matchup is tied 1-1 entering Game 3 in Montreal on Monday.Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
The Carolina Hurricanes shook off the rust and played their kind of smashmouth game to win Game 2 of the Eastern Conference final in overtime on Saturday, applying relentless pressure with fearsome discipline and snuffing out the spark of a young, skilled team in a dispiriting 3-2 loss for the Montreal Canadiens.
Habs coach Martin St. Louis will be looking for ways to give his skill players room to breathe again as the series returns to Montreal on Monday tied 1-1. Nikolaj Ehlers’ second goal of Game 2 ended it at 3:29 of overtime.
It was a far cry from the scoring explosion of Game 1, which the Habs took convincingly 6-2 while the Hurricanes looked a few steps slow after a long layoff between series. In that matchup, Montreal used Carolina’s trademark aggression against them, slipping away from their forecheck with deft breakout passing that led to a succession of odd-man rushes.
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour was insistent in his day-off press conference that the team simply had to execute better and would not abandon its relentless pressing. Sure enough, the Hurricanes looked far tighter in Game 2, plugging up the holes that let the Canadiens get the puck behind them on Thursday. They won a majority of the individual battles and constrained Montreal’s creativity on rushes and the power play.
Carolina opened the scoring on a workmanlike deflection from Eric Robinson in the first period, more the result of sheer effort than inspiration.
Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov attempts to slip the puck past Jakub Dobes, who made 23 saves for Montreal in defeat.Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
Montreal rebounded with a goal from their first shot on goal after a tic-tac-toe play ended on power forward Josh Anderson’s stick in front of the net, continuing their habit of holding onto the puck for the perfect chance, which can be maddening until it pays off. The Canadiens were again decisively outshot on Saturday, this time 26 to 12.
Despite goalie Frederik Andersen’s impeccable record in the first two rounds, and being hung out to dry by a porous defense in Game 1, his five goals allowed on Thursday prompted some local media to wonder about swapping him for one-time starter Brandon Bussi, who was expected to get more time in the crease during these playoffs.
Montreal didn’t test Andersen much in the first two periods and his counterpart, Jakub Dobes, let in a soft-ish goal in the second on an Ehlers solo effort that ended up going five-hole. But Dobes also kept the Canadiens in the game as they got outshot yet again, continuing to display shades of Ken Dryden in 1971 and Patrick Roy in 1986, other rookies who carried the Habs to glory.
Despite an eight-year playoff streak and four conference finals during that stretch, the Hurricanes had gone 1-13 at this stage under the Brind’Amour regime heading into Game 2. A more demanding hockey market might be asking questions about his future with the team, but In Rod We Trust bumper stickers remain popular.
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Montreal is playing with house money at this point, having made it further than most fans expected at the start of the season, just a few years into a rebuilding project that has resulted in the youngest conference finalist since 1993. The ultra-talented trio of Lane Hutson, Ivan Demidov and Juraj Slafkovsky has shown poise beyond their years in this playoff run.
The bench will have gotten a boost from the fact that it was the gritty third line playing so prettily on the team’s first goal, with a lightning-quick pass from suddenly ascendant veteran Phillip Danault and a steely finish from Anderson, relative greybeards at 33 and 32, respectively (and two of the few Canadiens capable of growing actual playoff beards).
Anderson banged in a second goal with about seven minutes left in the third, showing the value of grinding down low and putting pucks on the net to a team that can sometimes try to finesse its way past the goalie.
After exhausting back-and-forth series against Tampa Bay and Buffalo, in which the teams split their first two games, Montreal was eager to jump out to its first 2-0 lead of the playoffs before heading back to the bedlam of the Bell Centre.
The team has played better on the road than at home in these playoffs, and will have to hope the electric atmosphere in Montreal provides the spark they were lacking on Saturday.