EDMONTON — Ryan Smyth scored with just over two minutes left in the third period to lift the Edmonton Oilers to a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes and get them back into the Stanley Cup final.

The win cuts the Hurricanes lead to two games to one in the best-of-seven NHL final series. Game 4 goes Monday at Rexall (8 p.m. ET).

Smyth scored his sixth of the playoffs after linemate Ales Hemsky fired the puck at Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward. Smyth flew into Ward and managed to bang in the rebound past Ward's right pad as the 16,839 fans at Rexall Place roared in thunderous delight.

"It went in the net and that's what counts," Smyth said. "It hit my chest but it wasn't intentional to throw my weight in there."

Shawn Horcoff also scored for the Oilers while Rod Brind'Amour replied for Carolina.

Oilers goaltender Jussi Markkanen made 24 saves for his first playoff victory.

Markkanen was called upon to make a number of spectacular saves. The 31-year-old Finn turned aside a Justin Williams breakaway in the first period and early in the third, stopped Matt Cullen on a goal-mouth rebound while sitting on his butt.

He was making his second career playoff start and had not played in over three months when he was called upon for Game 2 after Oiler starter Dwayne Roloson tore up his knee in a collision late in Game 1.

He got some help from the crowd, who chanted "Jussi! Jussi!" just as they did for Roloson in the playoffs.

Horcoff scored the Oilers first goal less than three minutes into the game.

He fought off defenceman Bret Hedican in front of the net to tip a Jaroslav Spacek slapshot through Ward's legs. It was the first goal in eight games for the Oilers's first-line centre.

After the two teams traded scoring chances in the second period, Brind'Amour notched his league-leading 12th goal of the playoffs midway through the third.

The Hurricane captain took a pass from the corner from Cory Stillman and shot at the net. After it bounced of an Oiler, Brind'Amour took his own rebound and wristed the puck past Markkanen on the stick side.

The Oilers finally found a way to get to Ward. The 22-year-old, who is from nearby Sherwood Park, had stymied the Oilers for the previous four periods and shut them out completely in Game 2.

"He played extremely well again for us," said Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette.

His playoff record fell to six wins and 13 losses.

The Oilers also doused the Cane's red-hot power play, which had been firing at better than 25 per cent in the first two games.

The Oilers got the crowd revved up when they showed ex-Oilers, including Mark Messier, in the crowd and played scenes of Stanley Cup victories past on the JumboTron.

Messier received a standing ovation.

The Oilers, trying to become the first eighth-seeded playoff team to win the cup, are counting on history repeating itself this spring.

After losing the first two games on the road to the San Jose Sharks in the second round, they roared back to win four straight and take the series.

It was a tough start.

The Oilers outplayed Carolina for most of Game 1. They led 3-0 late in the second period when the Hurricanes roared back to beat them 5-4.

Markkanen played well in Game 2 but the Oilers came out flat, took undisciplined penalties and were given their worst drubbing of the playoffs, a 5-0 loss.

Notes: Winger Cory Stillman extended his consecutive point streak to 11 games . . . Oiler defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron was scratched from the Oilers lineup. Bergeron had a rough start to the final. He was part of the collision that sent Roloson to the sidelines in Game 1 and had the game-winning goal bounce in off his skate in Game 2 . . . The Oilers are now 7-2 at home in the playoffs . . . Hurricane centre Doug Weight, a former Oiler captain who played nine seasons with the copper and blue, was soundly booed whenever he touched the puck and mocked with chants of "Dougie! Dougie! when he took a first-period penalty for interference. That's not unusual treatment for Weight, who was popular in Edmonton but has been jeered in every return trip since he was traded to St. Louis in 2001 . . . For the third straight home game, anthem singer Paul Lorieau simply held up the microphone and let the crowd belt out O Canada . . . Some Grade A Alberta beef was tossed at the feet of the Hurricanes during the anthem in what has become a playoff tradition this spring at Rexall . . . Carolina GM Jim Rutherford arrived late in Edmonton this week after having to get off the 'Canes charter plane to be treated in hospital for a kidney stone . . . Saturday was the ninth consecutive playoff sellout at Rexall . . . Cam Ward is among four Alberta boys in the Carolina lineup. Mike Commodore and Ray Whitney are from nearby Fort Saskatchewan and Glen Wesley is from Red Deer.