Rapid Reaction: Death, Taxes, Canes winning 3-2 in overtime! Canes take 2-1 series lead vs. Montreal

All right Brian Murphy let's react rapidly right now for

2026-05-26

uh the YouTube

Uh man Cardiac Keynes man you can count on 3

things in life right Death taxes and the Carolina Hurricanes

to deliver in overtime

They get another 3 to 2 victory as they're now

up 2 to 1 in the series over the Montreal

Canadiens

And it's very interesting because they're 5-0 in this postseason

when going to overtime

Each one is a 3 to 2 win and this

is the second one of this series in back to

back games for them

Yeah I mean they've really solved the problem that was

exposed in game one right They lose 6 to 2

in game one

Don't look like the Carolina Hurricanes

Well over the last two games and and they both

went to overtime this looks like what you expect out

of a Rod Brenda Moore Carolina Hurricanes team

Outshooting Montreal 13 to 1 in in the third period

in overtime combined dominating puck possession just just keeping Montreal

stuck in their own zone

One of the stats they gave on TV Montreal had

13 icings only 12 shots on goal

I mean That is Carolina Hurricanes hockey

And I think it's wearing Montreal down a little bit

I mean that was the sense I got at the

end of this game

Andre Svetnikov with the game winner threw a Sebastian Ajo

screen in front of Dobesh to get the to get

the win

Um but I got the sense that Carolina keeps rolling

those lines

That fourth line the Jankowski line's been terrific and they

can play all four lines

Montreal really cut down its fourth line didn't play it

much

Carolina's 10-1 in the postseason

Montreal's played 18 games now or or 17 games now

in the postseason

The difference in the number of games I think is

starting to catch up to Montreal a little bit

And if you're gonna continue to play extra hockey right

like this was almost 4 full periods of hockey uh

that uh Montreal has played

I mean they're putting some miles on their body

But the Carolina Hurricanes as you said getting to their

game and we've seen that the last two games and

I think that's been uh an important key

And then you have new guys stepping up

I thought it was a very uh a very important

thing to see the first goal go in by Shane

Gossels bear right You got somebody from the blue line

who's gonna send it in instead of one of the

fours

Helping out uh with the scoring here uh in this

series

And and I I thought that was a a big

moment because before that you know some of the other

uh D men you know were were shooting it in

as well trying to get it in

They were being a lot more aggressive

I felt like the D was a lot more aggressive

in shooting the puck in this game especially in that

first period and and they cashed in

Uh I will say I don't want to be a

Debbie Downer though

With 38 shots to 13 there was a bunch of

blocked shots so maybe the Canes would have had 50

shots right if if Montreal wasn't so good at blocking

so they blocked like 30-something shots

So you gotta think like a third of those are

are decent shot chances

The Canes still are barely winning these games right And

and you know maybe uh as hockey people you look

at it like when you're dominating and it's just not

going in and that's cool and all

But we see when the Canes aren't playing their game

they um can they'll end up losing 6 to 2

But in these games they're winning 3 to 2 but

you need overtime to get there

Uh you kind of want to see more shots or

more goals go in for the Canes

Yeah I I mean certainly you know this is their

style right You get a lot of pucks on net

and then you hope some things happen when you get

that first shot

I mean we saw the 2nd goal Ke'Andre Miller great

backhand pass to Taylor Hall right on the goal line

or right up at the crease

Uh he had to bang it I think maybe 3

times to get it home right Dovi stopped the 1st

2

Hall was finally able to get it through

That's the kind of hockey they want to play

But you would like to see

You know Aho and and Svetnikov and Jarvis that line

which had played much better tonight I thought had the

the game-winning goal

They had a couple of chances a puck just bouncing

over someone's stick

I mean they had a couple of chances late

So you would like to see a higher grade chances

I think but I think their their style is to

overwhelm you with shots get enough rebounds put enough behind

the goalie and and it's working

They're now 2 games away from the Stanley Cup Final

uh which is pretty amazing considering where we were after

game one

And folks thought well maybe Montreal is just just too

fast just too skilled and and might put Carolina away

Andrei Sveshnikov uh gets credit for that last goal for

a second

It went to Sebastian Ajo but goes back to Andrei

Sveshnikov

But I will say this because on Twitter there was

starting to be a discussion

About Sebastian Ajo right You're the topline center

Um there's you haven't seen a bunch of production from

him uh in this postseason

Of course the first two you know series you the

top lines kind of cancel each other out and you

see the big uh second line the big production from

them and things are rolling really well

This is where you want your top line guys to

really start going in there

And I will say that Um that net front presence

of of Ajo blocking out Dobesh

And I think we've seen now Doesh can get um

kind of off his rocker a little bit

He can get a little bit frustrated uh with some

things

And I I I I feel like he was frustrated

a little bit in this game

And at the very end Sebastian Ajo kind of blocking

him out right there

He didn't see that puck coming at all

And you know even though he's not Gonna get any

credit for any of that

He has a lot to do with that goal right

there

And even though people on Twitter on X are having

that discussion hey where is Sebastian now Where's our topline

center I think you have to give him a lot

of credit for how he helped Andrei Svetchikov get that

one in the goal at the end of the game

And that was a terrific shift from that group

I mean they kept the puck in deep

They they worked it

They got additional chances and then Svetchikov finally delivers there

at the end

Uh like you said Ajo a great job of blocking

Doesh

I think Freddie Anderson needs a little credit here too

His 11th straight game he doesn't get many shots right

Only 12 shots on goal but he came up big

with a a couple of those big saves when when

Carolina really needed it

You know you get late in the 3rd period you've

got to come up with those saves because there's not

enough time left to get back on the board

I thought he he played well

And they're just gonna ride Freddie Anderson I think as

as far as he's gonna take them

That's 11 straight starts uh outside of the first game

of the series hadn't allowed more than 2 goals in

any game

He's gonna hold them to 2 and and can your

offense go get you 3 seems to be the formula

for Carolina right now

Kane's video crew also has uh a lot to do

because that 3rd period when the Habs scored a goal

and then it was called back because of uh offsides

that was a really important uh key moment in the

game

Here's a Another thing that if you look at everything

kind of historically the first time that the Canes have

led in the Eastern Conference Final since they won in

2006

Ever since then they have lost a bunch and we've

talked about that a lot

Right now their record is 3 and 18

In the Eastern Conference Final uh after they won the

uh Stanley Cup Final uh and and you know 20

years ago in 2006

It hasn't looked good for them but now this is

the first time having a lead

And this is also the first time in this postseason

that Montreal has lost back to back games

And so now you see that momentum going back uh

the Canes way

It really does feel like the the worst thing for

the Canes in this postseason

It is a bunch of rest

It's a twelve-day break because if you didn't have a

12-day break maybe they come out a little bit better

and play their game in game one and this is

possibly another 3-0 start to a series right Well I

think we could put it start to put away

That that 1 in 16 number that we've been using

a lot um and start looking at 2 and 1

I mean this team is now 2 and 1 in

the Eastern Conference Finals this year

And certainly I've used that number many many times but

you know this team I think is writing its own

story and right now they're up 2-1

Yeah they certainly looked rusty after the 12-day break in

game one

They must have switched something defensively

They stopped allowing those forwards the Montreal forwards to get

behind their defensemen

Um and those little those long cross ice passes that

were setting up all those breakaways

Uh Montreal still has a ton of skill and you

saw it with their goal

You know Caulfield and and Hudson a nice little give

and go

Um so they still are capable but Carolina is just

shutting down those opportunities

The terrific stick work by Slavin Ke'Andre Miller

I mean just every time you think Montreal might have

a chance there's a defenseman or a forward poking the

stick uh poking the puck keeping it away from one

of those great scoring opportunities that they got in game

one

a whole uh you know Ajo said it on TNT

after the game the whole team

The deserves credit

They really got contributions up and down the lineup

All 4 lines all 3 defensive pairings

I thought played pretty well tonight

You said something key right there

They're writing their own story

And that's something that uh actually Logan State CID said

this morning after uh uh after morning skate when there

was uh the pregame availability

He was asked a question like hey You guys in

this uh round haven't looked very good

He was like I just got to this team last

year

This team right now is one and one in this

round

Whatever happened in the past has nothing to do with

us

We're talking about right now

And he's he's correct

Because also in those other series uh the Canes weren't

favorite to win

They're favorite to win in this series and now they're

up 2 to 1

So they are writing their own story right now

Uh and this is exactly where they want to be

They've now tilted home ice advantage back uh to themselves

Really all they have to do right now is uh

continue to play their game and really take care of

home right If you lose if you go Back and

forth back and forth back and forth again and you

just take care of home you're moving on to the

Stanley Cup Finals

Yeah Carolina has Game 5 and Game 7 at home

Obviously would like to take care of it beforehand

Montreal is not as good at home as they are

on the road

Their record this postseason is much better on the road

but yeah you know Game 4 is Wednesday night

Game 5 is Friday night

If Carolina can play their game two more nights they

may be looking at at clinching by the end of

the week

It doesn't do good for my blood pressure but maybe

you hope that it goes into overtime again as they're

5-0 in uh overtime in in the postseason and Montreal

is 3-4 now in overtime uh this postseason

Those extra games I think are going to catch up

to Montreal at some point

Played 6 more games than the Hurricanes

Um all all like they started looking tired in the

Buffalo series at the end

Yeah and now they've gone to overtime at least uh

you know twice in this series

Uh you know they made some changes

Uh Montreal made some changes with its lineup

I wonder if they're gonna make some more changes try

to get some tired legs out of there maybe some

fresher legs in their lineup

But uh you know right now I think the momentum

certainly on the Hurricanes side and and I think they're

starting to feel it a little bit right If we

play our game

We see what happens

There's like proof of concept there that this works in

this round

It works against this team

Just keep hitting them

Keep taking more shots than them and eventually you'll get

one past Dobish

Well we'll see what happens

Game 5 game 4 excuse me is uh Wednesday night

8 o'clock uh from Montreal

And of course uh we're guaranteed to come to uh

back to Raleigh for Game 5

The Canes can essentially close this one out in a

gentleman sweep but they have to take care of business

on Wednesday night to put themselves in that uh that

position to possibly do that

Well and the other interesting thing Carolina's been the beneficiary

of all this rest or maybe not the beneficiary but

The Western Conference is 3-0 and it's possible that Vegas

finishes that off while the Carolina series goes longer

So if Carolina were to make it to the Stanley

Cup Final it's possible they're gonna be at the rest

deficit which would be interesting given what they've done in

the first couple of rounds

Yeah we'll see how that uh possibly impacts them

We'll definitely be uh paying attention to what's happening over

there

I also saw something else on Twitter

About the Carolina Hurricanes and their luck

Somebody brought up Brian uh this is unfair but I

just wanna bring it up for entertainment's sake

Was it the Hurricanes Was it Martin Naches Because right

now the Avalanche are down 0-3 right now

But I don't want to say that I like Martinez

He's a really good player

Uh that's not me saying it it's just something I

saw on Twitter

The I also thought the one thing we should mention

the non-call on the six men on the ice penalty

Look I'm a total let them play

Especially you get late in the 3rd period you get

to overtime let him play

But when the 6th guy is the guy who stops

the puck and that was clearly the case

There were 6 guys

I mean that's when they show it in football you

know you you count the guys there's 12

TNT counted the guys

There were 6 skaters

And one of them the 6th guy the guy who

was going off played the puck

I mean you've got to make that call

I I I think the Hurricanes fans were were not

happy with the officiating in this game

You know most of the calls I'm I'm good letting

them settle it on the ice

That one is so obvious

I think you have to make that call

And I'm gonna go back also to uh the first

goal that uh the Montreal Canadiens scored

I don't know how you call that slashing on Martineau

honestly you know it's it's just it's a little tap

And Hudson let go of his stick and then throws

up his hand and it's all of a sudden it's

it's slashing

And we've seen a lot worse not get called

So uh there's a there's a few examples here

I know we're gonna sound like homers technically we are

Um but uh The Hurricanes have been able to overcome

the officiating

Carolina 0 and 90 had had stopped the last 19

power plays that they'd been penalty kills

They were successful in their last 19 penalty kills

Then Martin gets that penalty

They Montreal scores right back in in the game

Well uh we'll see what ends up happening

We're gonna be uh we're looking at Game 4 on

Wednesday

And back here on uh Friday in Raleigh uh that's

our that's our reaction unless do you have more No

no another another 3-2 victory in overtime

Another 3-2 victory

Like that is that is the thing uh if the

Canes are gonna lose they're gonna lose 6 to 2

If they're gonna win they're gonna win 3 to 2

I'm Chris Lee

That is Brian Murphy

Thank you guys for watching right here on WRL's YouTube

channel