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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Rod Brind'Amour didn't see a need to juggle his lineup or massively adjust the scheme after an ugly first period cost the Carolina Hurricanes any chance to win their Eastern Conference Final opener.
No, the issue was as simple as getting to their game, with the precision and edge they had shown in sweeping through the first two playoff rounds.
Following that approach got the Eastern Conference's top seed back into their series against the Montreal Canadiens as play moves to Canada for Monday's Game 3. And it offers the roadmap entering what is now a best-of-five series for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
“We just tried to keep it real after Game 1: We needed a better effort,” defenseman K'Andre Miller said Sunday.
“We know how we can play Hurricane hockey and we know we're at our best when we can get to our game. So I think it was just a matter of looking (at) the man in the mirror and bringing your best effort for Game 2.”
The Canadiens won Game 1 by jumping on a team coming off an 11-day break — the longest wait to start a series in more than a century — scoring four goals in the opening 11 1/2 minutes. Montreal repeatedly got loose for clean breakouts and breakaways against Frederik Andersen in that one.
The lone positive from that game was the Hurricanes played more of their preferred style in the second period. Otherwise, Brind’Amour said they needed to toss it and move on, even saying the team wouldn’t go through an on-ice practice.
“It’s not what we need,” he said Friday.
Carolina responded Saturday night by looking closer to its previous playoff form with its aggressive forecheck, controlling the puck in the offensive zone and winning battles along the boards to minimize the chances going the other way. The Hurricanes held the Canadiens to 12 shots on goal while surrendering far fewer unchecked sprints through the neutral zone that led to such Game 1 trouble.
“I think all the way through it was more Carolina Hurricane hockey in Game 2 and we'll try to keep building on that,” captain Jordan Staal said.
Then there is the pressure to break through to the Stanley Cup Final in Carolina's third Eastern final in four years and fourth in the current eight-year postseason run under Brind'Amour. Carolina was swept in this round against Boston in 2019 and Florida in 2023, then fell in five games in last year’s rematch with the Panthers.
The Hurricanes were 1-13 under Brind’Amour in the Eastern Conference Final before winning Game 2 on Nikolaj Ehlers’ overtime goal. And the franchise's struggles in this round go back even to Brind'Amour's playing days in a 2009 sweep against Pittsburgh, with Carolina losing 10 straight home conference-final games since beating Buffalo in Game 7 on the way to hoisting the Cup in 2006 with Brind'Amour as captain.
This is the first time the Hurricanes haven't found themselves in an 0-2 hole in this round since that year, too.
Brind'Amour dismissed talk of past struggles by noting “there's too much to worry about right now” with corralling the young and fearless Canadiens.
“Right now it's so day-to-day focused, shift-focused eventually, that you can't think like that,” Staal said.
The good news for the Canadiens was they continued to show an ultra-opportunistic approach to attacking any opening, down to forcing OT and being a goal away from a 2-0 series lead despite being outplayed most of Saturday.
Josh Anderson's first goal at the 11:11 mark of the opening period came on the Canadiens' first shot on goal, set up by Taylor Hall's failed clear attempt that was kept in at the blue line by Kaiden Guhle. Anderson's second came on a third-period rebound of his own shot in a multi-player scramble in front of the crease after Carolina couldn't get that puck cleared, either.
It's a familiar story for Montreal, notably going back to how they won Game 7 on the road of the first-round series against Tampa Bay despite getting just nine shots on goal. Or how they regrouped from blowing a 2-0 lead in Game 7 at Buffalo to win that second-round series in overtime.
“It can take one play in a game to change the whole mood and the energy,” Montreal captain Nick Suzuki said Sunday. "We've got a lot of opportunistic guys, and we trust the style. ... So if you can get through those moments, there's usually something good on the other side of that.
“We've done that all playoffs, and I don't really see that changing. I think we can win any type of game."
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
