Hurricanes square Eastern Conference Final with Canadiens on Ehlers’ OT winner
The Carolina Hurricanes were after two things Saturday in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Montreal Canadiens: a 60-minute effort and a victory.
Disappointed by their play in the opening game of the series, determined not to repeat it, the Canes took a 3-2 overtime victory Saturday to square the series at Lenovo Center.
It took more than 60 minutes. It took two scintillating goals from Nikolaj Ehlers. But the Canes will go to Montreal for the next two games off a clutch victory. Game 3 is Monday at the Bell Centre.
Ehlers, skating down the right wing, wristed a shot past Jakub Dobes at 3:29 of the OT, the rookie goalie left sitting on the ice and dejected.
The Canes took a 2-1 lead into the third after the first goal by Ehlers with three minutes left in the second that had the home fans rumbling. But Montreal’s Josh Anderson tied it with his second goal of the night, setting up overtime.
The Canadiens, after beating the Buffalo Sabres in a seven-game series, rolled into Raleigh and took a 6-2 win in Game 1, which the Canes had been waiting 11 days to play.
For the second straight game, the Canes took an early lead. Unlike Game 1, the Canadiens were not able to quickly tie it up.
The Canes again got a goal from their fourth line and Eric Robinson his second in as many games. Robinson kept his stick on the ice and got a piece of a William Carrier shot to deflect the puck past a sliding Dobes at 2:33 of the first.
The Habs did score on their first shot of the game — at 11:11 of the period.
After Canes forward Taylor Hall failed to clear the zone along the boards, Canadiens defenseman Kaiden Guhle and forward Phillip Danault teamed up with Anderson for a goal and 1-1 tie.
The Canes established the forecheck and kept the heat on Dobes, who once resorted to using his left leg to intentionally knock the net off its mooring. No penalty was called, but Dobes would later be caught and given an interference penalty for hitting Mark Jankowski near the post.
The Canes were a lot more alert defensively and positionally more sound. They prevented the Habs from making any home-run stretch passes for breakaways and allowed two shots in the opening period, five through the first 40 minutes and 12 in the first 60.
The second period ended with Canes captain Jordan Staal having a few words with referees Gord Dwyer and Kelly Sutherland. In the closing moments of the period, Carrier took a stick up high with no call — Carrier leaving the ice in pain — and Miller took a slash between the legs from Alexandre Texier as the period ended.
The Texier play was reviewed and the forward assessed a minor penalty, a decision that pleased neither Staal nor Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour.
Better defense was a must for Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes went through a workmanlike morning skate Saturday at Lenovo Center, with minimum chatter, in preparing for Game 2.
Many wore their game faces, both during the skate and afterward in the locker-room media scrums, talking about reversing the 6-2 loss to Montreal in Game 1.
“We need to play our game for 60 minutes,” defenseman Jaccob Slavin said Saturday. “They’re a fast team. They play with a lot of speed and a lot of skill, and they did a good job breaking out pucks. We’ve got to do a better job of forechecking and a better job of staying above them.”
And the Hurricanes did that Saturday night.
The Canes’ defensive corps was caught out of position numerous times in Game 1 as the Canadiens scored on breakaways and open shots against porous coverage. That included Slavin, who might have experienced the poorest playoff game of his career.
“We have to take what happened last game and learn from it,” Slavin said. “What’s done is done. We can’t change it. We’ve got a confident group in here, and we need to concentrate on what we do best. We’ve got to be a lot better.”
The Canes rolled through the first eight games of the Stanley Cup playoffs, sweeping Ottawa and the Philadelphia Flyers. There were some tight games and overtime games, but they found a way to win eight times as goalie Frederik Andersen allowed just 10 goals.
Andersen was left to fend for himself a few too many times in Game 1.
“Tonight the focus needs to be on defense first,” winger Seth Jarvis said before Game 2. “That’s how we create our offense. The first two (playoff rounds) we were really good defensively, but last game we had a lapse. But mainly we want to come out and play the way we can.”
Brind’Amour’s mind on improved D
Brind’Amour was asked Saturday, again, if more offense was needed from the top line centered by Sebastian Aho, especially against a potent team like Montreal. His answer was predictable and to the point.
“Well, if we defend like we did, then yes,” he said.
“If we’re going to go and give away four or five breakaways, we’ve got to score five or six goals,” Brind’Amour added. “But if we can eliminate those, then no, we don’t have to. It depends on how the game is going and how we’re playing.”
The Canes, from all accounts, had an intense video session Friday with the head coach.
Said Jarvis: “You take the words he’s saying and keep that in your brain and know it’s coming from a good place. He wants the best for us. No matter how he delivers the message, he’s looking out for the best interest of the team.”
St. Louis: Canes mirror Brind’Amour
Brind’Amour and Montreal coach Martin St. Louis faced off against each other on the ice in the NHL long before going behind the bench as coaches, and St-Louis sees a lot of Brind’Amour in the Canes’ style of play.
“Hard-nosed,” he said. “Rod was a Selke (Trophy) winner, so you knew you were going to have a hard game playing against him. But he also had some offense to his game. He was a complete player.
“Carolina is kind of playing that style. They play offense, they play defense, they compete. It’s a lot like Rod was.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2026 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Hurricanes square Eastern Conference Final with Canadiens on Ehlers’ OT winner."
