GAME: Detroit Red Wings at Carolina Hurricanes.

PLAYOFF SERIES: Stanley Cup finals; Red Wings lead 2-1.

TIME: Monday, 8 p.m. EDT.

Late in the third overtime, Igor Larionov had enough jump left in his 41-year-old legs to give the Detroit Red Wings a pivotal victory in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals - and deal the Carolina Hurricanes a painful loss.

Now Larionov and the Wings look to push the Hurricanes to the brink of elimination when the teams meet in Game 4 at the Raleigh Sports and Entertainment Arena.

Larionov scored his second goal of the game 14:47 into the third extra period as the weary Red Wings, the NHL's oldest team, outlasted the Hurricanes 3-2 on Saturday night.

Larionov's goal came after Detroit tied the game on Brett Hull's deflection of Nicklas Lidstrom's shot with 1:14 left in regulation. Jeff O'Neill had given Carolina the lead 7:34 into the third with his seventh goal of the playoffs and sixth in 10 games.

"We may be old, but I was telling Igor that I'd rather be old and smart than young and dumb," said Hull, who got his 99th career playoff goal. "Youth and enthusiasm can only take you only so far."

Larionov's game-winner, scored on the backhand off an odd-man rush, may have dealt a blow to the psyche of the young and inexperienced Hurricanes.

"It's a tough loss, you can't hide it," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "We're not going to go in waving pompoms and say it's all right."

While Detroit still needs two more wins to capture the Stanley Cup, Game 3 was clearly crucial for both teams, particularly when it went to multiple overtimes. For the older Red Wings, falling behind in the series after playing nearly an hour of overtime might have been very difficult to recover from.

Instead, the Red Wings have regained home-ice advantage, and the momentum, in the series after the Hurricanes came home encouraged following a split of the first two games at Joe Louis Arena.

Dominik Hasek gave the Wings even more reason to be confident, finishing with 41 saves, including 22 in overtime and holding Carolina scoreless for longer than a regulation game.

The Hurricanes also couldn't have asked for much more from their goaltender, as Arturs Irbe made 50 saves and robbed Steve Yzerman late in the second OT with a diving stop.

"We went into their building and won the first game in overtime and they came in ours and did the same thing," Carolina forward Bates Battaglia said. "They bounced back and we'll bounce back."

Some of the Red Wings, however, sounded like they already had the critical victory they needed to win the series, and Detroit has history on its side. The team winning Game 3 of a 1-1 series has gone on to win the Cup 20 of 23 times. Pittsburgh in 1991 was the last team to rally from such a deficit.

"I feel bad for the Hurricanes," Hull said. "All that stuff that was said about them before the series? They're a great team, and they're imbedded in the system their coach wants them to play. You get a team that plays that way and is determined, it's such a tough system to crack. They're a tough, tough opponent."

The teams will get two days off before Game 5, which will be Thursday at Joe Louis Arena.

HOW THEY GOT HERE: Red Wings - 1st seed; beat Vancouver Canucks 4-2, Western Conference quarterfinals; beat St. Louis Blues 4-1, conference semifinals; beat Colorado Avalanche 4-3, conference finals. Hurricanes - 3rd seed; beat New Jersey Devils 4-2, Eastern Conference quarterfinals; beat Montreal Canadiens 4-2, conference semifinals; beat Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2, conference finals.

PLAYOFF TEAM LEADERS: Red Wings - Hull, 9 goals; Yzerman, 15 assists and 21 points; Chris Chelios, 44 PIM. Hurricanes - O'Neill, 7 goals and 25 PIM; Ron Francis, 10 assists and 16 points.

PLAYOFF SPECIAL TEAMS: Red Wings - Power play: 19.4 percent (18 for 93). Penalty killing: 86.9 percent (86 for 99). Hurricanes - Power play: 15.3 percent (15 for 98). Penalty killing: 84.4 percent (76 for 90).

GOALTENDERS: Red Wings - Hasek (14-7, 5 SO, 1.98 GAA); Manny Legace (0-0, 5.45). Hurricanes - Irbe (10-6, 1, 1.56); Kevin Weekes (3-2, 2, 1.62).

REGULAR SEASON SERIES: Red Wings, 2-0. Legace stopped 26 shots and rookie Pavel Datsyuk scored his first NHL goal and added an assist as Detroit won the opener 5-2 at Raleigh on Oct. 30. In the second meeting, Yzerman set up the game's first three goals as the Wings built a 4-0 lead and held on for a 4-3 victory Nov. 13 at Joe Louis Arena.

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