(Montreal) The Canadiens players were treated to a whole lesson on Saturday night at the Bell Centre.
Paul Stastny had a goal and an assist, Antti Raanta made 14 saves and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Montreal club 3-0.
The Habs had all the trouble in the world getting out of bounds and maintaining possession of the puck in the offensive zone. The result was the Hurricanes had a 36-10 shots on goal advantage after two periods.
Overall, this game will be one of those in which the Canadian will have looked the least well this season.
Samuel Montembeault faced a barrage of 47 shots and tried his best to limit the damage in front of the Canadian net (30-41-6), who suffered a third loss in a row.
Brady Skjei and Sebastian Aho also scored for the Hurricanes (47-18-9), who had lost their previous three games (0-2-1).
Forward Joel Armia returned to action for the Canadiens after a 19-game absence with a respiratory infection. Rem Pitlick has also been inserted into the training. Rafaël Harvey-Pinard (accumulation of minor injuries) and Chris Tierney were left out.
The Canadiens will play their next game on Tuesday, when the Detroit Red Wings are at the Bell Center.
The Hurricanes quickly announced their intentions bottling the Canadiens in their territory for the majority of the first period.
Even though most of the shots came from the periphery, Montembeault had to be vigilant not to concede a return and to adjust during deflections.
Montembeault was helpless when Skjei opened the scoring at 6:00 of the first period. He never saw the shot from the defender, which passed to his left.
The Canadian was a little more threatening at the start of the second period.
Mike Matheson reached the post after a great maneuver. Raanta also made a nice save on a powerful one-timer from Jesse Ylönen.
At the other end of the rink, Jordan Harris made a nice drop to prevent Seth Jarvis from being able to shoot into an open net.
The Hurricanes ended up widening the gap, however. Stastny deflected a Burns shot into the goal at 10:51, then Aho took advantage of a fine pass from Stefan Noesen to score on the power play at 16:27.
Raanta came on again late in the second half. He stopped a shot from Michael Pezzetta after a pass from Johnathan Kovacevic, who had just left the penalty bench.
Jonathan Drouin and Ylönen had good chances to save the Canadiens’ honor in the third period, in vain.
