Andrei Svechnikov’s clutch overtime heroics propelled Carolina to a 2-1 series lead in Montreal, proving the Hurricanes’ relentless conditioning and depth can outlast any postseason pressure.
The Carolina Hurricanes have taken a 2-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference with another 3-2 overtime victory on Monday at Centre Bell.
Andrei Svechnikov scored his first career playoff OT goal for the win and both Shayne Gostisbehere and Taylor Hall also scored their first goals of the series.
After the game, Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, Gostisbehere and Hall spoke with the media in Montreal. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On why his group has been so consistent: I don't think you can put it on just one thing. We have a good group, good players and they play hard for each other. That showed.
On the top guys producing: The whole game, I felt pretty good about how we were going. Those guys in particular had a lot of good chances and were around it. You never know, obviously, how it's going to unfold, but we certainly had our opportunities.
On Andrei Svechnikov: Hopefully it jumpstarts him getting on the scoresheet. I think he's played well and been a factor, just not scoring. I mean, you're not going to advance if you don't get production out of your top guys, obviously, so it's great to see that tonight.
On the team's comfortability in overtime: We're really comfortable. We trust our game, especially tonight, where we were clearly going pretty well. We didn't really need to make too many adjustments or anything. Just keep playing. It doesn't always work out, but tonight it did.
On not letting frustration creep in: The guys didn't get frustrated but I think it's because we've been through this before fairly often over a long period of time. Again, it kind of goes back to trusting the game and trusting in how we're playing. It doesn't always work out, but there's no other way to do it. I think guys understand that.
On not allowing many shots: We still gave up a couple, a breakaway and a couple off of the post there, so there was definitely chances for that to look different, but again, it just goes to trusting how we have to play the game and when you have 20 guys doing it that way, it's going to look like that quite often. That's kind of what happened there.
On the offside challenge: All the teams, they're on it. As soon as an entry goes in, they're already buzzing you if it's close, but I give credit to [Video Coach Chris Huffine] because that's a bit of a tricky one because are you dragging it and all that. We obviously went through that with Jordo already, which helped us be real confident that that was going to be offside. They did a great job there. Obviously that's a huge point in the game.
On if he knows who got the overtime goal: I still don't know and I don't care. As long as somebody got it.
On Frederik Andersen: This is a tough game to play, believe it or not. You're not getting a lot of action and when you do, it's of the grade-A variety. But that's the right guy for us in these situations because he is just a calm presence whether we're giving up 30 shots a night or what it was tonight. He's going to be the same. That's kind of what you've seen out of him.
Andrei Svechnikov
On why the team has had so much success in overtime: I just really think it's the mentality of the team. We love tight games. Every time, we love that. We love staying above them and not giving them lots of chances. I think that's why we won in overtime.
On avoiding getting frustrated in these tight games: I don't think it's really hard. I've been playing eight years in this system and that's what we do every day. I got some experience to help me not get frustrated. We all do. That's why Roddy at intermissions tells us to stick with out game. That's what we did.
On how he's felt about his game: It's the most important time of my life right now, of our life as a team. You have to get on the scoresheet somehow and I think we've been playing good as a line. We're creating a lot and today, we created lots of chances. We could have scored more than one goal, but it's just the way it goes. We know more goals are coming for us.
On if he thinks the team's physicality is getting to Montreal: I don't want to really talk about it, but that's what we try to do. Just finish the checks obviously and hopefully they're going to turn the puck over or ice it and we can get offensive faceoffs and all that stuff. We always try to finish our checks.
Sebastian Aho
On if he could feel his line was close to breaking through: Yeah. Honestly, I thought we were creating a little more offense today and we played a good game, I thought. Obviously didn't score till the very end, but that's what matters. We play to win these games and that was a big one.
On the secret to the team's road success: Good question. I don't know. I think we try to play our game home and away, right? The game is the same. I feel like the environment is a little bit different whether you're home or away, but I feel like the game stays the same.
On how he feels about his game: I thought our line was better today. Like I said, I thought we created definitely enough chances to score a couple of goals, but we just stuck with it. That's playoff hockey. You just keep on going and hopefully you break through at the end and that's exactly what happened.
On if he deflected Svechnikov's shot: I couldn't tell. I don't think so. They have good technology in this building, I'm sure, so they'll figure it out. I honestly don't even care. We'll take the win and we'll move forward.
On if he feels the team is back in order now after Game 1: Yeah. I mean that was obviously one game and we lost it and we kind of just went over that game, watched some video and then trashed it after. I mean, you have to have a little bit of a short memory in the playoffs. You don't want to really have things start lingering in your game. I thought we did a pretty good job in Game 2 and we were obviously able to win that game and got another win tonight. The wins and losses, that's what matters. We're happy to win tonight and hopefully we can do it again in a couple of days.
Shayne Gostisbehere
On overtime: Just kept doing the same thing. We play an effective, forechecking game. I think Freddie made a save on the Suzuki breakaway, that was big right at the beginning. It's just kind of what we do. Nothing changes even if it's overtime, third period, first period. Just keep doing what we do.
On staying ahead: It's good to obviously play with the lead and even if we get behind, it's a test as well. Compliment to them. They kept coming back. We put a lot of rubber at the net there and the goalie stood tall. Like I said, just have to keep doing it.
On if he noticed he scored at first: I had no idea. I didn't see anything. Was it obvious? I had no idea. Happy it went in.
On staving off frustration in these kinds of games: It's emotional, for sure. They're coming off two seven-game series, a lot of overtimes. I think that was their seventh or eighth overtime game. It's the playoffs. It's easy to get away from what you're supposed to do and get away from that. For us, it's the same thing. Keep doing the same things over and over and we'll get good results. We know what works and it's just up to us to stick with it.
On building momentum when Montreal is constantly icing the puck: It's putting the stress on them. That's what we always say. It's a hard system for us to play sometimes because you have to be on your toes, you have to be always skating, but you can see that it's pretty effective and it's probably not the best to play against. They're a really highly skilled team too and they make plays and you can see that sometimes. Any chance they're in the D-zone the whole shift, that's probably better for us.
On the top line coming through: It's awesome. Those guys built the foundation of this team and they've carried us this whole season. It's nice to see them obviously get the results that they've been working hard for. Especially Svech. We always tell him to shoot the puck. He's the strongest guy on the ice and when he's playing that power forward role, that's when he's at his best. We always say to just go be an animal out there... smartly. But it's good to see those guys get results because you don't see how much work they put in.
On the team getting back to their game: It's definitely a turning point for us. A little adversity after having two sweeps in the first two rounds. Not a lot of adversity in that sense. So for us, it was a good kick in the teeth and for us to respond was pretty good two games in a row.
Taylor Hall
On Montreal's called back goal: That was an interesting point in the game. In the end, it's offside, so shouldn't have really even turned into a play. It's nice that they got it right and that was a nice break for us. We felt like we had control of the game and you have to make sure that we win those ones and we ended up doing that.
On the system: I think there's a lot to like about our game tonight and you're seeing that the rust is off and we're feeling good about playing hockey again. You're off for 12 days and that first game felt like a million miles an hour and now the game is starting to slow down and you're making reads without having to think about it. It was a good effort from us tonight. A lot of guys contributed and that's how it has to be.
On his physical play: I'm just trying to play hard. I'm not perfect out there. I don't want to hurt anyone. I just want to make their D and their good players feel pressure. Hutson is probably their most important player and if he has the puck, I'm gonna try and make some contact and prevent him from getting up the ice ultimately. It's playoff hockey. You have to find different ways to contribute. I was off the scoresheet the first couple of games, but I felt like the physicality was one way I could help out.
On finding ways to win: Roddy came in and said, 'We've got them where we want them.' It was about stepping on the gas. You don't feel sorry for yourself that the game hasn't finished the way you want to. Sometimes it's going to take that. If you win 3-2 every game, you get 60% of the goals. We'll take it. If we have to go to overtime every game, we're ready for that. We're 5-0 in overtime now. That's a sign that we're going to bend and not break and continue playing our game.
On Jakub Dobes: Just a really good goalie. He's big, he seals the whole bottom half of the net. So if the puck is not exactly where you want it off your stick, sometimes it's hard to get those up. He has let in a five-hole goal, but he's really good and he battles for a big guy like that. He's never too far out of his net because he's so big. But we got three on him tonight, so we'll take that going forward.
On the key to the overtime success: I think we just, in all those games, we feel like we had control. I think for every game, for every overtime, except for the one against Philadelphia, we controlled play. It's just another first period or second period, I guess with the way the benches are. But we don't have to change a lot. We feel like we're fresher and that's gonna help us in the end.
On the team's road success: Sometimes it's a little bit easier to play on the road. There's not the distractions that there could be at home and if you have a power play at home and you don't get anything out of it, there's just a little bit of anxiety in the building and you're only human, you're gonna feel that. But when you're the road team, you just keep humming. You keep going and the simple plays seem like the best ones and we did a really good job with that tonight.
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