In Montreal, the Canadiens held a 3-2 lead on Tuesday night over the Carolina Hurricanes, but Jester Fast scored with less than four minutes to go in regulation to tie the game for the canes and send it to extra time.
The extra session solved nothing, and  Jesperi Kotkaniem was credited with the game-winner on penalties.
“We were struggling clearly for two periods,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “And then we just put a period together that looked kind of like we need to play, and how we usually play, and at least got us back in the game and able to find a way to squeeze it out.”
Antti Raanta got the start for the Canes, he made eight saves in the first period, surrendering two goals.
He was replaced at the start of the second period, departing the game for an apparent injury.
Frederik Andersen made 13 saves in the relief.
The Canadiens took a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Alex Belzile and Mike Hoffman .
Montreal dropped to 26-33-5.
Jaccob Slavin scored 15 after the Habs had taken the two-goal lead on Hoffman’s strike to get the Canes to within one, 2-1.
Brady Skjei scored in the middle frame to pull Carolina even at 2-2.
Carolina improved to 42-12-8, and four points clear at the top of the Metropolitan Division.
“I don’t know what is wrong with us, but we somehow always have a little sloppy start against the lower-ranked teams,” said Kotkaniemi, who won it in the sixth round of the shootout. “We have to get rid of that if we want to be the best in the League.”
Montreal reclaimed the lead, 3-2, on a marker from Michael Pezzetta at 2:49 of the second period.
“Chris is super-skilled and slows the game down,” Pezzetta said. “So, for me and [Belzile], we like to play hard, we like to play fast. With Chris, he can really settle pucks down and make soft little plays. It’s nice knowing that I’m going to take off and he’s going to feather one in or make soft little chip plays to beat one of their defenders and open up space for us. It’s really good playing with him.”
Jake Allen made 36 saves in the Canadiens loss.
“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to all these guys in this room. It’s not an easy team to play to begin with,” Allen said. “But the situation we’re in, after coming off almost two weeks on the road, to come back from a West Coast trip, the first game’s always really difficult [and] you don’t have your legs.
“I was really impressed and proud of that group, the way they battled against a [heck] of a hockey team in a tough circumstance.”
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