If luck is the residue of design, than bad luck is born of miscue.

On Tuesday night, in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series between Carolina and Montreal, the Hurricanes committed several mistakes in the opening minutes of overtime which directly led to an unlucky bounce and a heartbreaking 2-1 loss.

	Tempting Fate
	Rod Brind'Amour led the Hurricanes in faceoff precentage in Game 3 by winning 16 of his 22 draws (73 percent). While he held an edge in overall draws against every Canadien he faced, he won only one of four faceoffs against Yanic Perreault in the defensive zone.
	vs. player	D-zone	Total
	Doug Gilmour	1-1	1-2
	Joe Juneau	0-0	1-1
	Saku Koivu	3-3	10-11
	Yanic Perreault	1-4	5-8
	Total	5-8	16-22

The bad bounce came off a defensive zone draw between the Canadiens' Yanic Perreault and the 'Canes' Rod Brind'Amour, the league's top two faceoff men.

When veteran linesman Ray Scapinello dropped the puck between the two men in the right-wing circle (to the left of Carolina goalie Kevin Weekes), Brind'Amour seemed to win the draw. But, he didn't win it cleanly and the puck caromed up between his legs and behind him.

Montreal sniper Donald Audette, who was lined up alongside Carolina's talented rookie winger Erik Cole on the inside hashmark, spotted the floating disc and immediately broke to the bottom of the circle behind Brind'Amour. On that type of play, Cole (or a defenseman if he's lined up in that spot) must tie-up Audette. But, in this case, the freshman failed to complete his assignment.

Also, for some reason, Hurricanes defenseman Sean Hill was lined up on an angle behind Cole. This left a void behind Brind'Amour after the puck was dropped.

With the timing of a pure goal scorer, Audette filled that void and swatted the puck off its second bounce through the legs of Hill and a stunned Weekes to win the game for the Habs.

The game-winning goal came at the end of a dreadful sequence during which the Hurricanes were whistled for three icings in less than a minute. With each icing, the linesman carried the puck back down the ice for another dangerous faceoff in the Hurricanes' end.

The first icing, with just 1:54 gone in overtime, occurred when defenseman Marek Malik put a little too much mustard on a clearing attempt from the side boards. So early in the period, on a still clean sheet of ice, the puck traveled all the way past the Habs' goal line.

Just 14 seconds later, Hill tried to force a hard pass through the middle to a covered Brind'Amour. The puck whistled past him and down the ice for the second icing.

On both occasions, Brind'Amour bailed out his teammates with clean faceoff wins against Saku Koivu.

Still, 16 seconds later, veteran defenseman Glen Wesley tempted fate again by overshooting left winger Bates Battaglia with another head-man pass. You would think an experienced veteran like Wesley would've been more careful in an overtime game. But, because he wasn't, the faceoff was back in the 'Canes' end ... again.

This time, perhaps playing a hunch, Montreal coach Michel Therrien sent Perreault, his faceoff ace, onto the ice. Therrien had matched Perreault against Brind'Amour earlier in the game, but switched to Koivu when Brind'Amour's line (with Cole and Battaglia) was getting the better of the play.

On the third draw -- the third unnecessary draw -- in the Carolina end, Brind'Amour couldn't win another faceoff cleanly enough to bail out his mates. The puck bounced. Audette scored. And, Montreal won, taking a 2-1 series lead.

Bad luck? Maybe. But, really, they brought it on themselves.

E.J. Hradek writes hockey for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at ej.hradek@espnmag.com.