RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Rick Tocchet got the response he wanted from his Philadelphia Flyers. Rod Brind'Amour had reason to be frustrated with his Carolina Hurricanes taking too many penalties, disrupting their preferred 5-on-5 rhythm.
And yet, the Hurricanes are still unbeaten in the NHL playoffs, thanks to a comeback from their first deficit of the postseason and a gritty-effort overtime winner from Taylor Hall.
Carolina's 3-2 win Monday night gave the
Eastern Conference's top seed a 2-0 lead in the second-round series, coming after an uphill climb with the Flyers getting to their game much more effectively than in the series opener to build some confidence as the series shifts to Philadelphia.
“We don't quit. I think we've shown that all year,” said Carolina winger Nikolaj Ehlers, who had a goal and assisted on the tying score in the third period. "If we keep playing the right way and keep putting a lot of pressure on their players, every single shift, we will get back to playing some pretty good hockey and creating a lot of turnovers, a lot of good chances.
“You want adversity. We had that in the Ottawa series as well, because it's going to happen again. And now we know what we need to do for the next time it happens."
Carolina swept that first-round series against the Senators and never trailed. That series started with a home shutout and then a 3-2 double-overtime win in Game 2. The Hurricanes started this series in similar fashion, first with a Game 1 shutout and then another 3-2 win in extra time on Hall's score at 18:54 of OT.
The Flyers host the next two games in the best-of-seven series, with Game 3 set for Thursday night.
The Hurricanes had at least one clear area to clean up: penalties. Carolina committed eight — two for delay of game for putting pucks over the glass, one for too many men on the ice — and had a steady line of players heading to the penalty box.
The penalty kill was good enough to hold Philadelphia to a 1-for-7 showing Monday, pushing Carolina to 30 for 32 (.938) this postseason. Brind'Amour, however, said the rash of penalties “kills your team, kills your momentum, kills everything.”
“We're taking too many," the coach said. "The ones that are self-inflicted for me — the over the glass, little tic-tac ones — you've got to avoid these. Too many men. We've had too many of those here. We've gotten away with it, because we've been able to kill it. But it's not how you draw it up.”
As for Tocchet, Monday's loss offered a welcome sign of pushback after Game 1, which left the Flyers coach talking about the need for his players to react quicker against Carolina’s aggression and speed, as well as to carry the puck more into the tough areas of the ice.
“Mentally and physically I just thought we had more energy, and I think we believed that we can compete with this team,” Tocchet said.
Philadelphia did that early, with Jamie Drysdale and Sean Couturier scoring in a 39-second span of the first period for the Flyers. And they outshot Carolina 15-8 in overtime to carry that competitiveness to the end despite playing again without injured regular-season goals leader Owen Tippett.
Yet this one ended with Hall hopping to his feet after being knocked to the ice by Denver Barkey as Hall charged toward the crease, then grabbing a loose puck kept alive by Jackson Blake to slip it past Dan Vladar's left skate for the winner.
That pushed Carolina to a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series for the 10th time in the Hurricanes' eight-year playoff run under Brind'Amour. Carolina has won eight of the previous nine, the outlier being a seven-game loss to the New York Rangers in the 2022 second round.
Then again, the Flyers became the first NHL team to make the playoffs after being 10 points out with 22 or fewer games remaining, securing Philadelphia's first postseason appearance since 2020. Then the Flyers beat Pittsburgh in six games in the first round.
“Just the belief in the room, I think that really helps,” Tocchet said. “The belief in the room of just staying with it. And we've been dead before, and we've climbed out of the grave. We keep hearing we're dead and dead, but the guys won't give up. So that's why I'm proud of them.”
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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
