The Canadian followed a slightly too familiar scenario against a rival who had already found his legs after the Christmas break.
The Montreal club worked hard to get back on track, but Andrei Svechnikov completed his hat trick by scoring twice in the third period and the Carolina Hurricanes won 5-3 on Thursday at PNC Arena.
The Habs erased a 2-0 deficit in a third game in a row. He also closed a 3-2 deficit, but ultimately bowed to the Hurricanes, who returned to action on Wednesday by beating the Predators 5-2 in Nashville.
“It’s a team that applies a lot of pressure and was playing a second game,” said Canadiens head coach Martin St-Louis, speaking of the Hurricanes. They were a little more in “match mode”. We sat down again. »
“Apart from the start of the match, I would say we played a good match,” he added.
The Canadian thus saw his streak of matches with at least one point be stopped at five (3-0-2).
Mitchell Stephens, Mike Matheson and Josh Anderson scored for the Canadian (15-14-5). Cayden Primeau stopped 26 shots and suffered his first loss away from home this season (4-1-0).
Sean Monahan was credited with an assist and thus amassed his 500th career NHL point.
“It’s always nicer to reach a plateau in a victory,” Monahan said. I’m glad it’s behind me. »
Jesper Fast scored twice for the Hurricanes (19-13-4). Sebastian Aho had four assists and Brent Burns had three. Antti Raanta stopped 18 shots.
The Canadian lost a 10th game in a row in Carolina, where he has not won since April 7, 2016.
Defenseman Jordan Harris (lower body) was back in the Canadiens lineup after a 15-game absence. Johnathan Kovacevic was left out.
Forward Michael Pezzetta was also inserted into the Habs lineup. Emil Heineman was transferred to the Laval Rocket.
Juraj Slafkovsky finished the game on observation after being the victim of a violent check from Stefan Noesen.
The Canadian will visit the Florida Panthers on Saturday, then the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday.
By playing with fire
The Hurricanes opened the scoring just 1:35 into the game. Svechnikov deflected a Burns shot over Primeau’s glove.
Another shot from Burns led to the Hurricanes’ second goal at 7:20. Aho deflected the puck the other way and Fast just had to shoot into an open net.
Stephens restarted the Canadian 1:11 later. A Jayden Struble shot hit Michael Pezzetta in front of the net and Stephens lifted the return over Raanta’s right shoulder.
The Hurricanes pulled the lead to 3-1 for a few moments with 4:10 left. Coach Martin St-Louis, however, contested the goal and replays confirmed that Jack Drury had interfered with Primeau’s work. The goal was therefore canceled.
The Canadian took advantage of this second wind, while Matheson tied the game 2-2 with 3.9 seconds left in the first period. The defenseman scored on the power play, outpacing Raanta around the net.
Fast gave the Hurricanes the lead again 1:29 into the second period. He was forgotten in the slot and hit the mark with a one-timer following a pass from Noesen from behind the net.
The rest of the second period was the business of the Canadian… and Raanta. The Finnish goalkeeper closed the door with a few good saves, including one against Harris and another against Brendan Gallagher.
Raanta was also lucky when Pezzetta missed the target by deflecting a Stephens throw and when he dropped on the puck behind him as Christian Dvorak tried to push it behind the goal line.
The Hurricanes goalie, however, was powerless against Anderson early in the third period, when the Canadian forward escaped and slipped the puck between Raanta’s pads after 25 seconds of play.
“No one gives up on our team and we managed to come back quickly enough to give ourselves a chance to win,” Anderson said.
Drury was frustrated by Primeau on a breakaway with just over six minutes left, but the Hurricanes took a 4-3 lead moments later with 6:09 left on the clock. Svechnikov beat Primeau with a powerful one-timer after a faceoff won by Aho in Canadian territory.
The Canadian’s latest efforts were undermined by penalties against Joel Armia and Cole Caufield.
Svechnikov completed his fourth career hat trick by scoring into an empty net with 18.9 seconds left on the clock.