‘I can barely talk’: Carolina Hurricanes’ stress-relieving OT goal evens series
The Carolina Hurricanes often describe their aggressive style of play as their “stress game.”
But the Canes faced another type of stress game Saturday. Very stressful.
After a miserable 6-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday in the opening game of the Eastern Conference Final, the Hurricanes found themselves in overtime Saturday in Game 2 at Lenovo Center.
One mistake, one good shot or fortunate bounce by the Canadiens, and the Canes would go to Montreal for the next two games facing a 2-0 deficit in the playoff series. Their hopes of winning a Stanley Cup didn’t rest on the outcome of Saturday’s game — the team’s playoff history has proven that — but it would make things a lot more problematic after two losses at home.
The Canes had played too well for too long Saturday to let this one slip away, or at least they felt that way. Josh Anderson’s second goal of the game, with seven minutes left in regulation, tied the score 2-2 for Montreal and led to the overtime but the home team found a way to win.
The Canes controlled the early minutes of overtime until Nikolaj Ehlers took a pass from Mark Jankowski, blasted down the right wing, found open ice at the top of the slot and got off an unobstructed shot.
Boom. Ehlers beat goalie Jakub Dobes for the second time in the game, the Canes had a 3-2 win and the arena was shaking.
What was going through his mind with the game won?
“Everything,” Ehlers said, smiling. “I can barely talk right now. I was yelling freaking loudly after the OT winner.
“I saw ‘Janks’ and Robby (Eric Robinson) on one side and I thought I’m going to pick up some speed and go to the other side and see if I can create some space and some room. It was a great pass … and then to try to get some speed and get the puck off my stick as quick as possible and try to surprise the goalie.
“Seeing that go in, seeing how the fans reacted, was pretty cool. That’s one I’m not going to forget.”
Jankowski, who took a pass form Jalen Chatfield and then go the puck to Ehlers, was headed to the Canes bench for a change. That changed quickly.
“I kind of peeked over and saw he had a good gap on the guy and shot it in,” Jankowski said.
Instead of sitting down, Jankowski was streaking across the ice to celebrate after the Hurricanes’ first home-ice win in the conference final since 2006, Carolina’s much-celebrated Cup-winning year.
Not was it the first time in the game Ehlers had the crowd standing and roaring. His first goal, in the second period, came when he streaked into the Habs zone with the puck, slowed up, spun and rifled a shot past Dobes.
“I think his nickname is ‘Fly’ for a reason,” said Robinson, who scored the game’s first goal on the deflection of a William Carrier shot. “He’s a special player. It seems like he gets faster when he gets the puck, which is not easy to do, and made a couple of really special plays tonight.”
Ehlers was named the game’s first star, but the Hurricanes had many.
Defenseman Jaccob Slavin rebounded from one of his worst games to anchor a D corps burned in the 6-2 loss in Game 1. The Canes got sticks on pucks and did not allow the Canadiens to get in transition or produce breakaways.
“I was never worried about that,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Slavin. “That’s one thing I know about Jaccob. He’s the best athlete I’ve ever seen on just being able to turn the page. He actually showed that he was human the other night. I hadn’t seen that, ever. But there’s a guy that nothing bothers him. He bounced back.”
Brind’Amour made a matchup change from Game 1, sending out Jordan Staal’s line — at times with Slavin and Chatfield on the back end — against Nick Suzuki’s line.
“That’s who he should be playing against, the best players, which is usually how we do it,” Brind’Amour said. “We obviously felt like from the other night we needed to change things up a little bit, so we did that.”
Suzuki and wingers Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, three fast, skilled forwards, had a combined four shots on a very quiet night. Montreal had just 12 shots in the game -- only the second NHL team to have 12 or fewer in an overtime playoff game (Chicago, 1978).
Ehlers is on Staal’s lime and is an underrated defensive player. He joined Staal and Jordan Martinook in building up some offensive-zone time while muzzling the Habs’ top guys.
The Canes now head to Montreal off a strong, solid effort and a win that reduced the stress level after Game 1.
“It was great being able to get that one,” Jankowski said. “You don’t want to go down 0-2. We knew what was at stake.”
