MONTREAL — Two nights after becoming just the second team in NHL history to have as few as 12 shots in a Stanley Cup Playoffs game that extended beyond regulation time, the Montreal Canadiens generated just 13 and ended up with the same result.

It was a 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, who hadn’t beaten them all season before responding to Montreal’s Game 1 win with a 3-2 overtime win on Saturday. 

In both games, the Canadiens were one shot away from winning. In both games, they couldn’t find a way to have that shot hit the net, let alone put it in, hence their first consecutive losses in 71 days.

The Canadiens had chances. Heck, they had three of them in overtime before Andrei Svechnikov launched the point shot that tipped off Juraj Slafkovsky 74:04 into the game.

But Nick Suzuki missed the net on a breakaway 35 seconds into the extra period. Mike Matheson shot his into the crossbar 25 seconds later. And Alex Newhook’s shot through a screen hit Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen’s toe and didn’t originally count as a shot on net until it was reviewed and added long after Svechnikov ended the game.

Lane Hutson, who got caught between two decisions and made the wrong one on that play, blamed himself twice for the loss, which was sealed shortly after his turnover near his own blue line.

But the Canadiens had a chance to recover from Hutson’s gaffe and didn’t. And their own mismanagement of the puck near the offensive blue line was the biggest reason they found themselves in overtime to begin with.

“I think we’re missing too many chances to get in on the forecheck and go get the puck back,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis. “They’re a team that is hard to put good pucks in on because they’re really on top of you. But you have to find a way. I found that, at the blue line, we didn’t read situations well enough. We should’ve put more pucks deep and gotten in on the forecheck, and there’s a balance between possessing on the other side of the blue line and getting it past them and going to get it.”

The Canadiens never quite found that balance, with SportLogiq tracking their zone-entry success rate at just 40 per cent.

When the Canadiens got in, St. Louis said he felt they made better plays in possession than they did in Game 2.

But they didn’t make enough of them.

“We can still do a better job of holding onto pucks in the offensive zone,” said Mike Matheson, “and generating more time in the O-zone.”

The task has felt monumental over the last two games.

The Hurricanes, who were disconnected and gave the Canadiens far too much space in a 6-2 Game 1 loss, have rebounded with the same pristine execution that netted them eight consecutive wins before the Eastern Conference Final. They smothered the Ottawa Senators and Philadelphia Flyers, and now they’ve spent the better part of two games suffocating the Canadiens.

“They’ve been on top of the league for the last couple of years and you know there’s a reason why they’ve consistently been in this position (The Hurricanes are in their third conference final since 2023),” said Cole Caufield. “You can ask every team; they’re a tough team to play and they’ve been doing it for a while. So, I guess they’re all really on the same page and we’ve just got to find ways to break them down.”

On this night, the Canadiens broke themselves down too much.

Giving up 38 shots to the volume-shooting Hurricanes was one thing. Giving them 11 from nine feet or less was a recipe to lose by more than one goal, which assuredly would’ve happened had Jakub Dobes not conjured miraculous saves.

He made two on Taylor Hall and Logan Stankoven in succession before Svechnikov shot one off Slafkovsky as the Slovak was passing right through his Czech netminder’s crease.

“(Dobes has) been great all playoffs. Not surprised,” said Hutson. “He battled so hard. It sucks that I blew it for him, but it is what it is.”

Taking the blame was a noble gesture from the 22-year-old, but, as St. Louis said afterwards, the outcome of this game wasn’t on him.

“I didn’t love the play (from Hutson), but whatever,” said St. Louis. “It’s what’s next, and we didn’t do what’s next. We didn’t get the job done.”

He was talking about the winning goal, but he just as easily could’ve been referring to the decisions that led to the Canadiens getting less than 23 minutes of offensive-zone time to take some pressure off themselves and apply it on the Hurricanes.

It’s a Herculean lift against a team that has fired on all cylinders for all but one game of these playoffs. 

And while the Hurricanes were undoubtedly rusty after an 11-day break between the second round and the third before playing that one game, the Canadiens showed in that one game to what extent they can make that heavy lift.

They pushed in spurts of Games 2 and 3 but wobbled too much to win, even if they were one shot away in each game.

“We definitely have another level,” said Hutson.

He and Matheson, who each scored Monday, need to find it. As do the rest of their teammates come Wednesday’s Game 4, which will present the Canadiens a chance to even the series 2-2 and improve their playoff home record to 3-5.

It will take everyone playing their best, and much more.

“You need everything working against a team like that,” said St. Louis. “You’re at this stage right now, you’ve got to put it all together. Execution’s part of that. Jam is part of that. It’s not one thing. 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.”