“The kind of game a playoff team wins” is a phrase that gets thrown around from time to time in hockey. Playing in a game with massive playoff implications, the Carolina Hurricanes got that kind of win Sunday at PNC Arena. The team erased a 1-0 deficit with less than six minutes left against the Montreal Canadiens and won 2-1 in overtime on a game winner from rookie forward Andrei Svechnikov.
Before Svechnikov’s winner, defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk tied the game late for the Hurricanes (42-26-7). The Canes now lead the Canadiens (40-28-7) by three points for the first wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with a game in hand.
“Great ending obviously,” head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Super exciting game. Good third period for us, terrible second. It was kind of a tale of two games. The first period was great, the second period was just awful and then the third period looked like what we needed to look like. The overtime could went gone either way; they had some good chances. We got the big win.”
Curtis McElhinney kept the Canes in the game with several big stops, stopping 28 of 29 shots. He had to be at his best to outduel his Montreal counterpart in Carey Price, who stopped 38 of 40 shots from Carolina.
“[Price] was phenomenal tonight,” McElhinney said. “Obviously he’s one of the best if not the best in the game for the last little while. It’s always fun playing against him. He was on it tonight and I was just trying to keep pace with him.”
With 1:45 left in sudden death overtime, Svechnikov entered the game on a line change, took a pass from forward Jordan Staal, steamed in on a 2-on-1 rush and fired a shot past Price to give his team a crucial win with his second goal in as many games and 20th of the season.
“I’m super confident right now,” Svechnikov said. “I want to go out there, play my game and just enjoy it.”
Late in the third period, it didn’t look like the Canes would even get to overtime. The team seemingly could not get a puck past Canadiens goalie Carey Price, despite a number of good chances including breakaways for forwards Sebastian Aho and Teuvo Teravainen, and had squandered three power plays.
But, in a tight game, all it takes is one shot. Carolina finally tied the game with 5:39 to play in regulation, as van Riemsdyk let a wrister go from the point that beat Price through traffic. The tally was van Riemsdyk’s first in 50 games; his last came Nov. 27 in Montreal.
“Obviously we knew it was going to be a playoff type game,” van Riemsdyk said. “They got the nice little bounce for them on the first one. That’s playoff hockey. You don’t know if it’s going to be two minutes into the game when you get the game winner or late in the game when you tie it up.”
The Canadiens jumped in front with 5:02 left in first the period on a lucky bounce; after a defensive zone turnover, a shot by Habs forward Brendan Gallagher that got blocked bounced to forward Paul Byron, who tapped it in.
A Carolina turnover at the defensive blue line early in the second gave Montreal a shot at doubling its lead, but McElhinney came up with a breakaway save.
“He’s calm,” Brind’Amour said. “There’s no nervousness to his game. I think that settles our group down. And it’s been like that all year. I can’t say enough good things. He went toe to toe with the best goalie in the world and he certainly didn’t take a back seat.”
That poor second period in which the Canes did not record a shot on goal for the first 14:34 could have derailed this one. However, a few big stops from McElhinney and timely blocks from defenders kept Montreal from scoring in the second, leaving the door open for a third-period comeback and van Riemsdyk’s game-tying goal.
“It’s huge,” McElhinney said. “There was a couple saves, maybe a few I didn’t pick up until the last second. Maybe a few breaks where guys step in behind you and break up some plays. I think you make some saves but you also get some critical plays from guys in front of you as well.”
For the second game in a row, PNC was rocking as the Canes picked up a big win, and chants of “we want playoffs” from a fanbase that has waited nearly a decade to see its team return to the postseason echoed throughout the arena.
“It’s been a couple months now it seems like,” Brind’Amour said. “But tonight, you feel it when we score a goal. It shakes you. I love it. These people deserve to have some fun. We’ve had a lot of years here where it wasn’t too exciting. So [the fans] stuck with us. I think we’re providing an entertaining brand of hockey. It sure is exciting. It’s not necessarily how we draw it up, but it’s electric in here and obviously we hope it continues.”
With the win, the Canes are in a great spot with seven games to play. They sit in the East’s first wild card spot, three points clear of Montreal with a game in hand and five clear of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the top team outside the playoff picture.
Carolina could also still move up, as the team trails the Pittsburgh Penguins by two points for third place in the Metropolitan division with a game in hand, the New York Islanders by four for second with a game in hand and the Washington Capitals by five for first with a game in hand. After wrapping up a five-game homestand at 4-1, the Canes will head to Washington, DC to take on the Capitals Tuesday night.
“It starts with [Brind’Amour],” van Riemsdyk said. “I think he shows a lot of belief in us. And then it trickles its way down. When he says he knows we’re a playoff team, he knows we can make a run and do some damage, you believe it in his voice. I think that’s huge, and then we’ve got great leadership and it just kind of trickles down from there.”
Carolina Hurricanes left wing Andrei Svechnikov skates down the ice during the game versus the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday, March 24, 2019 in PNC Arena. Svechnikov scored the game-winning goal against the Canadiens in overtime. The Hurricanes beat the Canadiens 2-1.
