Jordan Martinook scored with 6:51 left in double-overtime to give secure a 3-2 victory for the Hurricanes to take a 2-0 series lead on the Senators with the series shifting back to Ottawa for Game 3 on Thursday.

“He’s been playing unbelievable. He’s been making massive saves in big moments, and we can do a better job in front of him,” said centre Dylan Cozens, who scored in regulation along with Drake Batherson.

Talk about drama. Jordan Martinook was stopped on a penalty shot he was rewarded with three minutes left in the first OT. This was one of the strangest sequences we’ve seen, which is what makes the playoffs great.

Mark Jankowski fired it home with 2:42 left in overtime, but the officials went upstairs to look to see if the play was offside. It’s automatically reviewed, and it was ruled no goal which ruined the celebration in Raleigh.

The league felt Jordan Staal wasn’t in control of the puck when he crossed the blueline.

“That’s the toughest thing. You have it won, and then it gets turned over. I give the guys a ton of credit because our game didn’t change. We actually got better,” said Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour.

A victory in Game 2 was paramount for the Senators. The franchise has never won a series falling behind 2-0, including last spring against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and that’s happened 10 times in the past.

During their run to the playoffs, the Senators were effective because they limited the scoring chances and won battles for pucks. The way the Canes play has made it difficult for Ottawa to repeat that success.

This series is a hard, physical battle. The Senators have to be willing pay the price to create chances. Ottawa did a much better job of that in the third period by pushing the pace.

The third period was frantic with both teams not trying to allow this game to get to overtime, but the Senators were the better team.

If not for Ullmark, this game wouldn’t be close. Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, he was the only reason they were in it. The Senators were outshot 30-16, and he made several highlight reel stops in that stretch.

The Senators just weren’t very good until they got back to their game in the third and used their speed to pressure the Hurricanes.

Ullmark, who had 27 stops in Game 1, came into this game with a 0-3-0 career playoff record against the Hurricanes with a 3.49 goals-against average and .884 save percentage.

He was the Senators’ best player in the first game, and by far the top performer in this one. Ullmark made some big saves when it was 2-0 that gave the club some momentum.

“We talked about creating more chances, and I thought we took some chances that we don’t normally take,” said coach Travis Green. “Our forwards were diving the way they don’t usually dive down, and we gave up more chances than we normally do.

“Linus kept us in there and made some big saves, especially in the second period. I really liked our game after that. I felt like they controlled the first half of the game, and I thought we controlled the last half.”

Give the Senators credit because they battled back from a 2-0 deficit. Cozens tied it up 2-2 at 16:40 of the second by firing the puck through Andersen’s five-hole. He’d want that one back.

It took nearly five periods for the Senators to solve Andersen. Working down low, Batherson attempted a pass that bounced back to him and then beat Andersen high at 10:47 of the second to get Ottawa on the board.It was only the seventh time in franchise history that the Senators have come back from a two-goal deficit to tie a game.

That gave the Senators a much-needed boost of energy because they were feeling nothing but frustration, especially after Andersen shut them out with 22 stops in Game 1.

A terrible turnover by Stutzle on a powerplay allowed the Hurricanes to pull out to a 2-0 lead at 7:50 of the second. He tried to do it all himself, which resulted in a turnover that set up a 2-on-1.

Sebastian Aho took a pass from Jordan Staal and chipped it home for a shorthanded effort. The Senators were down 2-0 to the Leafs last spring.

“We felt the same way last year, we were down 2-0, and we were excited going home,” said Batherson. “It’s nice to get a couple of days to get ready for Game 3 in front of our fans.”

Senators shaking their heads

Trailing 1-0 after the first, it was fair to wonder if the Senators were ever going to beat Andersen. Tkachuk had a glorious opportunity that bounced off the post, and then Fabian Zetterlund couldn’t put it home late.

The shots were 14-9 for the Hurricanes; the Senators went 0-for-2 with the man advantage.

The Canes opened the scoring at 6:31 on the powerplay. With Tkachuk in the box, Stankoven picked up his third point of this series by taking a pass from Taylor Hall and firing a blast by Ullmark.

That was unfortunate because the Senators missed on two glorious chances to take the lead. First, Tim Stutzle missed a wide-open net, and then Shane Pinto had a sure goal pulled off the line.