Hurricanes overcome penalties, deficit to beat Flyers in OT for 2-0 lead in 2nd-round playoff series

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.”

AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

Carolina Hurricanes' Taylor Hall (71) celebrates after his winning overtime goal against the Philadelphia Flyers during Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Carolina Hurricanes' Seth Jarvis, right, celebrates after his game-tying goal with teammate Sean Walker (26) during the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Philadelphia Flyers head coach Rick Tocchet speaks at a news conference following Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

Carolina Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour, center top, protests a call during the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Philadelphia Flyers in Raleigh, N.C., Monday, May 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Karl DeBlaker)

CAIRO (AP) — The Sudanese government accused Ethiopia of being behind recent drone attacks on sites including Khartoum airport and recalled its ambassador on Tuesday.

A military spokesperson in Sudan said the government has evidence that four drone strikes that have happened since March 1 came from Ethiopia’s Bahir Dar airport. It also accused the United Arab Emirates of supplying the drones.

The Sudanese military has been at war with a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces since April 2023, when the RSF stormed the capital. The battles have now shifted towards more drone warfare concentrating in the Kordofan and Blue Nile states.

Sudan has long accused the UAE of supporting the RSF, and U.N. experts and rights groups have also accused it of providing arms to the group. The UAE has rejected the accusation.

The most recent attack came on Monday and targeted the airport in Sudan's capital, Khartoum. The previous attacks were launched towards the Sudanese states of Kordofan, Blue Nile and White Nile.

Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Asim Awad Abdelwahab said at a Tuesday press conference that the government had analyzed data and evidence from a drone that entered Sudanese airspace heading for El-Obeid in Kordofan state on March 17 and found that that it had originated from the United Arab Emirates and took off from Ethiopia.

"We do not want to initiate aggression against any country, but whoever attacks us will be met with a response,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohi al-Din Salem said in the joint presser.

Ethiopia's foreign ministry in a statement Tuesday said it “rejects (the) baseless accusations.” It accused Sudan of violating its territorial integrity by supporting rebels in the northern Tigray region but said it had exercised restraint from publicizing the violations due to the ties between the two countries.

“It is evident that these hostile actions, as well as the recent and earlier series of allegations by officials of Sudanese armed forces, are undertaken at the behest of external patrons seeking to advance their own nefarious agenda,” the statement said.

Sudan's airport’s gradual reopening last year marked a key step in efforts to restore normal life in Khartoum, with ministries and millions of people starting their return back to the capital and surrounding states. The U.N migration agency said that around 4 million people have returned back to Sudan.

Drone attacks have happened frequently in the war, but Khartoum was considered largely safe until a string of attacks shattered the sense of calm in the capital and central Sudan.

A drone strike Saturday in Omdurman, the capital's sister city, killed five people in a civilian bus and another strike Sunday in central Sudan state of Al Jazirah killed family members, of Abu Agla Kaikal, a commander with the Sudan Shield Forces, a group allied with the Sudanese military, who defected from the RSF earlier in the war.

At least 59,000 people have been killed in this war, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, an independent conflict-monitoring body. Aid groups, however, say the true toll could be much higher, as access to areas of fighting across the vast country remains limited.

FILE - Khartoum International Airport ground workers greet the first domestic Sudan Airways flight landing from Port Sudan, in Khartoum, Sudan, on Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali, File)