Montreal Canadiens Lose Another Heartbreaker In Overtime To Carolina Hurricanes, 3-2
Though the Montréal Canadiens are hanging in tough against the higher-seeded Hurricanes, they now have two consecutive 3-2 overtime losses in the Eastern Conference Final of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They will look to rebound in Game 4 tomorrow night in front of a home crowd.
Game 3 Recap: Canadiens Lose Close Battle
In what has been a back-and-forth battle despite the Hurricanes being up 2-1 in the series, Game 3 was a good fight all the way through. In regulation, Shane Gothesbehere and Taylor Hall scored for the Hurricanes, while Lane Hutson and Mike Matheson scored for the Canadiens.
As with the first two games, Montréal didn’t manage many recorded shots on goal, with just 13, and was outshot throughout the game. They had plenty more chances to score than that, though.
In overtime, it took nearly 15 minutes, but Andrei Svechnikov scored at 14:06 to give the Hurricanes yet another overtime win. Carolina Goalie Frederik Anderson saved 11 shots, while Montréal Goalie Jakub Dobes made 36 saves. The Hurricanes are now 5-0 in overtime games, becoming just the fourth team in NHL history to achieve the feat.
Post-Game 3 Reactions
The Hurricanes were happy with their win. “I just really think it’s the mentality of the team,” Svechnikov said. “We love tight games, and we love staying above them, and we don’t give them a lot of chances, and I think that’s why we won that in overtime.”
“I think we’ve got a good group,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We’ve got good players, and they play hard for each other, and I think that shows.”
“Honestly, I thought we were creating a little bit more offense today, and we played a good game, I thought,” Hurricanes Center Sebastian Aho said. “Obviously, we couldn’t score until the very end, and that’s all that matters. We play to win these games, and that was a big win.”
The Canadiens weren’t too let down by the loss, but knew that it was important to bounce back and do better in Game 4 and beyond.
“You need everything working against a team like that,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “I don’t think you can just rely on the power play. You’ve got to defend when it’s time to defend, which I don’t think, especially in that first period, I don’t think we did a great job defending. You’re at this stage right now; you have to put it all together. Execution is part of that, you know, jam is part of that.”
Game 4 Preview
The Canadiens’ biggest issue in Game 4 is that they constantly made sloppy passes, especially during the first period. Those allowed the Hurricanes to control play, even with Dobes and the Canadiens’ defense doing a great job in blocking shots.
The Hurricanes haven’t scored nearly as much as they’re used to, and they lost Game 1 6-2, underestimating their opponents to their detriment. They’ve looked much stronger since and controlled the Canadiens offensively. This series is far from over, and the Canadiens are still in a good position to make a comeback in Game 4.
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