Why the Carolina Hurricanes feel right at home on the road — and in overtime
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Canes are 5-0 in overtime and 5-0 on the road in the playoffs.
- Svechnikov was ultimately credited with the Game 3 overtime goal.
- Canes outshot the Habs 38-13 and Andersen earned his 10th postseason win.
Andrei Svechnikov was headed into the Carolina Hurricanes locker room late Monday night when he was asked if he, minutes earlier, had scored the overtime goal to lift the Canes past the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final.
“I don’t really know,” he said, smiling.
Sebastian Aho said the same in a television interview at about the same time, unsure if the goal was credited to him or Svechnikov.
Neither knew at the time. Nor did either player care. (It was Svechnikov’s, officially, for what it’s worth.)
The Canes’ focus is on winning playoff games. If it takes overtime, so be it. Just win.
The Hurricanes picked up their fifth overtime victory in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs and a second straight in the Eastern Conference Final against the Montreal Canadiens.
The Bell Centre was rocking Monday night. Montreal legend Claude Lemieux carried out “the Torch” before the game — the Habs’ counter to the Canes sounding the siren — to further jack up the volume as Montreal fans welcomed home a team that won a Game 7 on the road to end the Buffalo Sabres series, then took a 6-2 win over the Canes in the opening game of the ECF in Raleigh.
But overtime games don’t faze the Hurricanes, forward Taylor Hall said.
“Roddy came in and said. ‘We’ve got ‘em where we want ‘em.’ It’s about stepping on the gas.”
That was Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour. This is his eighth consecutive playoff team, and it now has won twice in the conference final — a first for the franchise since beating the Sabres in 2006 on their way to the Cup.
Picking on a Montreal mistake
All the Canes needed in overtime Monday was a hero. And a break or two. And another Montreal mistake.
In the Game 2 overtime, a Canadiens turnover led to a rush down ice that ended with Nikolaj Ehlers scoring for the 3-2 win at the Lenovo Center.
Monday, another Montreal turnover, this time by young defenseman Lane Hutson, led to a sequence that had Svechnikov shoot from the right circle. Aho was crowding the crease near goalie Jakub Dobes, who again had played well against a team that likes to stay on the attack and wing shots at the net.
Svechnikov scored with 5:54 left in the overtime. Or did the puck hit Aho’s stick? The goal was first given to Svechnikov, changed to Aho, then back to Svechnikov.
“Who was it, Aho?” Brind’Amour later said.
No, Svechnikov. It also was the second of the playoff for the power forward, who plays with an edge and on the edge and has had his scoring chances in the playoffs and in Game 3, at even strength and on the power play.
“Hopefully it jumpstarts him getting on the scoresheet,” Brind’Amour said. “I think he’s played well. I think he’s been a factor and just not scoring.
“You’re not going to advance if you don’t get production out of your top guys, so it was great to see that tonight.”
Overtime is winning time for Canes
Why so good in overtime?
“I think it’s the mentality of the team,” Svechnikov said. “We love tight games, Every time, we love that.”
It has showed. The Canes had six overtime shots Monday and the Habs one. That came after a third period in which the Canadiens also had one shot. That’s two shots in the last 34:06..
That’s also misleading. Habs captain Nick Suzuki likely had a restless night Monday after taking a stretch pass from Hutson and missing on an open shot from the slot in the first minute of OT. Defenseman Mike Matheson had a shot find iron. Game 3 was that close to having a different narrative, an inch or two separating the Canadiens, not the Canes, from holding the 2-1 series lead.
The Canes are 5-0 in overtime games but also 5-0 on the road and 10-1 overall. Their one loss has been much discussed the past week: the beating in Game 1 after an 11-day layoff between series. The Canes claimed that didn’t cause the loss but surely was a factor in their sloppy, undisciplined play much of the game.
“That game felt like a million miles an hour and now the game’s starting to slow down,” Hall said.
Given their playoff record, Game 1 also can be considered an outlier.
“We watched the video and trashed it,” Aho said. “You’ve got to have a short memory in the playoffs. You don’t want to have things starting lingering in your game.
“I thought we did a pretty good job in Game 2, and we were able to win that game. And another win tonight.
“The wins and losses are what matter, right. We’re happy to win tonight and hopefully can do it again in a day.”
That would be Wednesday in Game 4 at the Bell Centre.
The Canes won Monday by outshooting the Habs 38-13. They had a 43-21 cushion in scoring chances, They again were physical, bouncing people around at times. Goalie Frederik Andersen was not seeing a lot of shots but being ready when he did in earning his 10th win of the postseason.
The Canes continued to pound away at the Habs’ defensemen, checking hard, looking to goad them into mistakes. Hutson made the biggest in overtime, later saying he believed he cost his team the game in a show of maturity by the 22-year-old D-man, whose second-period power-play goal tied the score 2-2.
The Canes now will try and put a chokehold on the Canadiens, just as they did the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers.
A Svechnikov goal in overtime put them in that position.
Or, was it Aho?
This story was originally published May 26, 2026 at 9:46 AM with the headline "Why the Carolina Hurricanes feel right at home on the road — and in overtime."
