(Raleigh) Frederik Andersen was playing his first game in over four months and he didn’t look the least bit rusty.
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The 34-year-old veteran goalkeeper finished his evening of work with 24 saves in front of the Carolina Hurricanes, who defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 on Thursday.
The Habs thus suffered a first defeat in regulation time during the fourth and final match of this trip to the United States. He had collected at least one point in his last four games (2-0-2) before this duel against the Hurricaines.
Andersen hadn’t played since Nov. 2 against the New York Rangers, being scratched for the Hurricanes’ last 50 games due to a blood clot issue. He quickly gave in to Joshua Roy in the first period, but pushed away all the other pucks aimed at him.
Brady Skjei scored a double in the victory. Stefan Noesen and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for the Hurricanes, who have won seven of their last 10 games. They are within four points of Rangers and first position in the Metropolitan section.
Samuel Montembeault played his first game since last Thursday and he finished his work evening with 35 saves. He only has one victory in his last six games.
Martin St-Louis’ squad will return to the Bell Center on Saturday to face the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Lack of opportunism
Andersen gave in from the Canadian’s second shot. His defender Jalen Chatfield wished him a good return by deflecting behind him a shot from Roy, at 5:53.
Roy accepted a short handoff from Alex Newhook near the blue line and quickly fired a wrist shot. It was a third goal this season for the Quebec rookie and a second in as many games.
The CH then missed a great opportunity to double their lead to 4 against 3 when Nick Suzuki redirected a pass directly onto the post to the right of Andersen.
Skjei, for his part, did not lack opportunism when he presented himself in front of Montembeault. Ignoring Juraj Slafkovsky’s coverage, the defender made a feint before shooting backhanded to the left of the Quebec goaltender. He scored his ninth goal of the season at 13:02 of the first.
In the second period, Cole Caufield sent a shot to the post and Newhook was unable to get a shot off after a nice breakthrough in the offensive zone. At the end of the period, the Canadian obtained a numerical advantage without being able to take advantage of it.
Once again, the local favorites made the Canadian regret his missed chances since Noesen gave his team the lead 25 seconds from the end of the period. The 31-year-old American scored his 14e goal of the campaign.
The sequence began with a turnover by Jake Evans near the goal line in his own zone. Montembeault was unable to keep the puck following a shot from the slot by Jack Drury, and Noesen backhanded the return shot.
Roy thought he had scored his second goal of the game just 25 seconds into the third when he pushed his own throw past Andersen. The referees, however, disallowed the goal since Newhook made contact with the goalkeeper.
Moments later, Andersen put his personal touch on the match with an important glove save at the expense of Josh Anderson, before robbing Brendan Gallagher with the tip of the pad.
Skjei dealt a hard blow to the Canadian with his second of the game at 15:31 when he escaped. Four against four. He placed the puck in the upper right corner of the net.
Svechnikov added the insurance goal in an empty net with 63 seconds remaining. He finished the game with two points.