The Montreal Canadiens find themselves down 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Final to the Carolina Hurricanes after a 3-2 overtime loss in Game 3 on Monday.
Defenceman Lane Hutson placed the blame for the defeat squarely on his own shoulders after his unforced giveaway in the extra frame led to Andrei Svechnikov’s game-winning goal.
“It would be nice to be up 2-1, but we’re not because of me,” Hutson said. “It’s frustrating.”
The turnover occurred at 6:13 of overtime when Hutson retrieved a dump in and floated a cross-ice pass that was easily intercepted by Svechnikov in the neutral zone. The Hurricanes top line would set up in the offensive zone and cycle until the puck found its way back to Svechnikov above the right circle for a wrist shot that went off a body in front of the net and past Jakub Dobes.
“I’m trying to make a possession play,” Hutson said. “I saw [Nick Suzuki] and I didn’t want to just pass it to a flat-footed ‘Suzy,’ have them tip it in and just get a free breakout again. So, I tried to make a possession play.
“It sucks because it ended up going in.”
“Yeah, I mean, I didn’t love the play, but whatever,” Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis said postgame. “It’s what’s next and we didn’t do what’s next. We didn’t get the job done.”
The play came near the end of an opening overtime period where the Hurricanes carried most of the play and outshot the Canadiens 6-1 before burying the winner. Dobes kept the Canadiens in the game despite the onslaught of shot attempts, stopping 35 of 38 shots in the loss.
“He battles so hard,” Hutson said of Dobes. “Sucks that I just blew it for him, but it is what it is.”
The Canadiens were inches away from taking a 3-2 lead in the third period and potentially, being up 2-1 on the Hurricanes. Instead, Cole Caufield was ruled offside after a review, wiping Noah Dobson’s would-be go-ahead goal off the board. The team did have their chances in overtime as well, with Suzuki missing the net on a breakaway 35 seconds into the extra frame and Mike Matheson’s seeing-eye shot ringing off the cross bar just 25 seconds later.
“Yeah, it would have been exciting,” Matheson said of his chance. “It would have been nice to see it go in.”
Now, the Canadiens face a 2-1 series deficit for the first time this postseason after winning Game 3 at home in their previous series against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres.
The Canadiens have been held to 25 shots on goal over the past two games, totalling 137:35, while the Hurricanes have put 64 on Dobes. Matheson, who scored the Canadiens’ first goal on Monday night, said the team needs to be better at putting pressure on the Hurricanes.
“I think we’ve definitely shown that we can generate more. I think we need to definitely have more O-zone time, though,” Matheson said. “That’s the toughest thing, when teams are, shift after shift, hemming you in your zone and making your lives difficult. That’s hard to play against.”
The Canadiens will try to even the series on Wednesday night in what feels like a must-win Game 4 at the Bell Centre.
“You’re at this stage now, you have to put it all together. Execution is part of that, jam is part of that,” said St. Louis. We’ve just got to put it all together. I know we can. We didn’t expect this to be easy and we’re OK with that.”
