Hurricanes beat Flyers on Taylor Hall's OT goal for 2-0 lead - ESPN

RALEIGH, N.C. — Taylor Hall slipped the puck past Dan Vladar at 18:54 of overtime to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Monday night, taking a 2-0 lead in their second-round series in the NHL playoffs.

Hall took a short feed from Sean Walker and carried the puck in on the left side before being knocked to his knees near the top of the crease. But Hall hopped up as Jackson Blake battled for the loose puck, corralled it and beat Vladar to cap a night that saw the Hurricanes fall behind 2-0 quickly for their first deficit of the postseason.

The series shifts to Philadelphia for Thursday's Game 3.

Seth Jarvis had the third-period goal that forced overtime for Carolina, and Nikolaj Ehlers also scored. Frederik Andersen finished with 34 saves to help the Hurricanes improve to 6-0 in the postseason.

Still, this one was anything but easy compared with the smothering first period that paved the way to a 3-0 win in Monday's Game 1. Flyers coach Rick Tocchet had talked about the need for his players to react quicker against Carolina's aggression and speed and carry the puck more into the tough areas of the ice.

The Flyers did that early, with Jamie Drysdale and Sean Couturier scoring in a 39-second span of the first period. And they outshot Carolina 15-8 in overtime in a much more assertive showing, but they couldn't beat Andersen again after that flurry in the first five minutes.

Vladar had 40 saves, including twice stopping Carolina's Eric Robinson on second-period breakaways. He also got a timely bit of help in that period from Travis Sanheim, who cleared a loose puck that had slipped behind Vladar in the crease to deny Carolina a tying score.

Ehlers' one-timer on the power play got the Hurricanes