Sebastian Aho scored at 14:06 of overtime, lifting the visiting Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday.
Aho deflected a shot by Andrei Svechnikov to give Carolina a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series heading to Game 4 on Wednesday in Montreal.
Shayne Gostisbehere and Taylor Hall also scored while Frederik Andersen needed to make just 10 saves for the second consecutive game for Carolina, which won Game 2 in overtime by the same score of 3-2 after taking a 6-2 loss in Game 1.
Mike Matheson and Lane Hutson scored for Montreal, which has lost two in a row for the first time in 17 games during the current postseason. Jakub Dobes made 35 saves and contributed an assist.
Carolina took a 1-0 lead at 8:24 of the first period.
The puck came out of the corner in the Montreal zone to Carolina forward Mark Jankowski, who took a shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle that deflected off the stick blade of Canadiens forward Kirby Dach. The puck went to Gostisbehere as he skated through the left circle, and he scored with a one-timer.
Montreal tied it 1-1 at 15:28 of the opening period.
This time the Canadiens won a battle for the puck behind the Carolina net. Ivan Demidov passed it out front to Matheson, who scored over Andersen’s glove with a wrist shot from above the right hashmarks.
The Hurricanes quickly retook the lead after Dobes made back-to-back saves from in close on Hall, but he scored on the third try to give Carolina a 2-1 lead at 16:22 of the first.
Montreal went on its second power play at 4:18 of the second period.
Cole Caufield passed the puck to Hutson as they crossed the Carolina blue line, got it back and then fed Hutson again just above the crease. Hutson redirected the puck into the net to tie it 2-2 at 4:43.
Noah Dobson appeared to score at 8:27 of the third period for the Canadiens, but the Hurricanes successfully challenged that Caufield was offside entering the zone 29 seconds before the puck went into the net.
