RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) \u2014 The Carolina Hurricanes knew they had to play more to their style to get back into the Eastern Conference Final series against Montreal.<\/p>\n
They got that most of Saturday night for Game 2, along with a huge performance from offseason addition Nikolaj Ehlers.<\/p>\n
Ehlers got loose up the center of the ice and popped the puck past Jakub Dobes at 3:29 of overtime to lift the Carolina Hurricanes past the Montreal Canadiens 3-2 on Saturday night to level the Eastern Conference Final at one game apiece.<\/p>\n
Ehlers scored twice for the Eastern Conference\u2019s top seed, the first with a highlight-reel individual effort in the second period against two Montreal defenders.<\/p>\n
And when the game went to OT, the guy the Hurricanes landed as a sought-after free agent<\/a> carried them to the finish line.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a special talent,\u201d Carolina coach Rod Brind\u2019Amour said, \u201cand it was on full display tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n The winning sequence started with a retreating Jalen Chatfield bouncing the puck back into the neutral zone to Mark Jankowski. Jankowski had a quick redirection to Ehlers entering the zone at full speed for a clean look at Dobes for the sudden winner.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t get a second breath,\u201d said Dobes, who had 23 saves. \u201cIt was over pretty quick.\u201d<\/p>\n As the puck hit the net, that sent a tense home crowd into a relieved but jubilant roar \u2014 along with a screaming Ehlers.<\/p>\n \u201cI can barely talk right now, but I was yelling pretty loudly after that OT winner,\u201d Ehlers said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great pass … and then just try to get some speed and get the puck off my stick as quick as possible and try to surprise the goalie,\u201d Ehlers said. \u201cSeeing that go in, seeing how the fans reacted was pretty cool.\u201d<\/p>\n Eric Robinson also scored for Carolina, which improved to 4-0 in overtime in the playoffs \u2014 including 3-2 home wins in extra time during Game 2 in all three playoff series so far.<\/p>\n Carolina was facing massive pressure to regroup from Thursday\u2019s 6-2 loss in the series opener that only magnified the team\u2019s long-running troubles in the Eastern Final. Now the series is level as it shifts to Canada for Monday\u2019s Game 3.<\/p>\n Josh Anderson scored twice for the Canadiens, the second coming at the 12:51 mark of the third period to ultimately force the overtime at 2-2.<\/p>\n The Canadiens won Game 1 by<\/a> jumping on a Carolina team coming off an 11-day break<\/a> after sweeping through the first two rounds \u2014 the longest wait to start a series in more than a century \u2014 for four goals in the opening 11 1\/2 minutes. Montreal repeatedly got loose for clean breakouts and breakaways for high-danger chances against Frederik Andersen in that one.<\/p>\n But Carolina looked much closer to its earlier playoff form with is aggressive forecheck and defensive pressure, holding Montreal to 12 shots on goal and giving up far fewer of those quick transition chances the Canadiens kept burying in Game 1.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to go 200 feet and produce offense unless you execute a little bit through that pressure,\u201d Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said. \u201cI felt today we weren\u2019t terrible, we just weren\u2019t as good\u201d as Thursday.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n AP NHL playoffs: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/stanley-cup<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nhl<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RALEIGH, N.C. 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