Hurricanes have gotten to their smothering game in moving within a win of Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Jordan Staal looks at the Carolina Hurricanes' on-their-game play as being part of a machine.

One that keeps rolling through its process, over and over, in smothering scoring chances and keeping the pressure on an opponent.

It has them within a win of reaching their first Stanley Cup Final in two decades entering Friday night's home Game 5 against the Montreal Canadiens in the Eastern Conference Final.

“Right now, when you get into these grooves, it's just kind of the machine,” the captain told reporters Thursday morning in Montreal. "You just kind of want to keep it running, keep doing what you're doing.

“I don't think the guys will waver too far from the next shift, the next play, the hyper-focus that we're on.”

The Eastern Conference's top seed started this series with a jarringly horrid start after going 11 days between playoff rounds — the longest postseason layoff in more than a century — and promptly allowing four goals in the first 11-plus minutes of a 6-2 loss.

Ever since, though, the Hurricanes have gotten more and more to their preferred style that helped them sweep through Ottawa and Philadelphia in the first two playoff rounds. And that has helped them grab control of the series from the on-the-rise Canadiens who arrived at this round earlier than some expected.

Carolina won a pair of 3-2 overtime games, first at home and then on the road, then dominated from the puck drop of Wednesday's 4-0 road romp that pushed the Hurricanes to a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

The Hurricanes are getting the puck into the offensive zone, using the aggressive forecheck to keep it there and pressure the Canadiens while giving talented goaltender Jakub Dobes a lot of work. The Game 4 win offered a withering case study, with Carolina scoring three goals in a nearly three-minute span of the first period then shutting off everything as the Canadiens tried to regroup.

It wasn't perfect. Notably there was a nearly two-minute 5-on-3 opportunity in which the Hurricanes didn't put a shot on Dobes with a chance to knock out the Canadiens midway through the second period.

Not that their coach was dwelling on it.

“I'm not pointing at any negative on this game, no chance,” Rod Brind'Amour said Thursday morning.

Now the pressure is fully on the Canadiens, who battled through two long series that included Game 7 road wins at Tampa Bay and Buffalo while the Hurricanes started 8-0 in the postseason.

Montreal hadn’t lost consecutive games since mid-March and hadn’t lost three straight games since a five-game skid in November. The Canadiens pounced on the slow-starting Hurricanes in Game 1 by repeatedly getting clean breakouts and breakaways with skaters hitting full speed as they blew unchecked through the neutral zone.

But as this series has worn on, the Canadiens have looked a half-step — sometimes more — behind.

The Hurricanes have more than double the shots on goal (108-43) in the past three games. And while some of that is due to a style that naturally leans into shot volume, the Hurricanes have steadily tightened their defensive grip on a skilled Canadiens team.

The Hurricanes took a 19-3 edge in shots on goal in the third period, keeping the Canadiens pinned in their defensive zone while finishing with a total of 18 shots. That marked the second time in three games that Carolina had more shots on goal in a period than Montreal had for the game, the other in the first period of Game 3 (16-13).

Carolina had a 42-15 edge in high-danger chances for Games 2, 3 and 4, according to Natural Stat Trick.

"We talk about all the time defending as a five-man unit,” Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “And our forwards are doing a great job of helping out with that, and allowing us to be tight-gapped, allowing us to be aggressive, allowing us to play the way we have to play.”

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

Montreal Canadiens' Nick Suzuki (14), Cole Caufield (13) and Kirby Dach (77) watch the final minutes of play in front of head coach Martin St. Louis against the Carolina Hurricanes during third period of Game 4 of the NHL Eastern Conference final Stanley Cup playoff series game in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

Carolina Hurricanes' Andrei Svechnikov (37) is congratulated on his empty net goal over the Montreal Canadiens by teammate Seth Jarvis (24) during third period of Game 4 of the NHL Eastern Conference final Stanley Cup playoff series game in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen is congratulated by teammates Sean Walker (26) and Alexander Nikishin (21) following their Game 4 NHL Eastern Conference final Stanley Cup playoff series win over the Montreal Canadiens in Montreal on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press via AP)

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Comedian and television host Conan O’Brien entertained Harvard University graduates at their commencement Thursday, mixing offbeat humor and political jokes with more reflective commentary about empathy and humility at a time when the Ivy League school is in the Trump administration's crosshairs.

O’Brien, who graduated from Harvard in 1985 and led The Harvard Lampoon humor magazine, quipped that the university had produced “more Nobel laureates or white-collar criminals” than any other in the country. “So whether you choose good or evil, know that you are among the very best.”

While he joked about “Justice Department spies” being in attendance, he also defended international students — which the Trump administration has attempted to block Harvard from hosting — and criticized what he described as a broader erosion of compassion in American public life.

“Our current leadership in Washington believes that empathy is a weakness,” O’Brien said.

He returns to campus during one of the most fraught periods in Harvard's recent history. The school faces mounting legal and financial pressure from President Donald Trump 's administration, which sued the school in March over accusations its leadership failed to address antisemitism on campus.

Months earlier, a judge sided with Harvard in another lawsuit and ordered the administration to reverse billions of dollars in funding cuts. Harvard says it was being illegally penalized for refusing to adopt the Trump administration’s views.

O'Brien joked that he too was suing the university over everything from uncomfortable dorm furniture to his “less-than-spectacular undergraduate sex life,” claims he said had “more merit than those filed by the president of the United States.”

Reflecting on how his Harvard background shaped the way people perceived him early in his comedy career, he urged grads not to let Harvard define them.

“Maybe my wish for you is not that Harvard becomes the last thing people know about you,” O’Brien said, “but instead that Harvard become the least important thing people know about you.”

Student speaker Andrew O’Donohue, who completed a doctorate studying democratic institutions and judicial independence, described how federal funding tied to his research was wiped out by Trump administration cuts before Harvard stepped in.

“When students self-censor, when professors fear being punished, when scientists worry that research funding is allocated based on politics,” O’Donohue said, “our universities will not produce the next great artist, doctor, scientist, educator, lawyer, entrepreneur, public servant, or innovator.”

Recent Harvard commencements have grown much more political.

Last year, students cheered speakers who defended diversity and international students in the face of Trump administration attacks. The year before was marked by walkouts and chants of “Free Palestine” after weeks of campus protests over the war in Gaza.

This year, graduate workers who are on strike picketed in Harvard Yard, blaring vuvuzela horns, drums and cowbells whenever an administrator spoke. More than 4,000 grad workers want higher pay, stronger protections and an independent process for harassment and discrimination complaints, among other issues. Dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators silently held signs condemning the university's “Complicity in Palestinian Genocide.”

Associated Press writer Leah Willingham in Boston contributed.

Comedian Conan O'Brien delivers a commencement address during Harvard University commencement exercises on the school's campus, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Comedian Conan O'Brien, center, greets people while walking in a procession through Harvard Yard, before delivering a commencement address during Harvard University commencement exercises on the school's campus, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Comedian Conan O'Brien delivers a commencement address during Harvard University commencement exercises on the school's campus, Thursday, May 28, 2026, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - The gates of Harvard Yard at Harvard University, Sept. 30, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

FILE - Host Conan O'Brien speaks during the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)