In Montreal, the Canadiens’ woes continued with a fifth straight loss to open the season. On Thursday night, the Habs lost to the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-1.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored in his return to Montreal with the Canes.
“It felt really good,” Kotkaniemi said. “It was a big relief after those first two games. But it was a great feeling to get it over here too.”
Frederik Andersen made 27 saves in the win.
Tyler Toffoli scored the lone goal for the Habs, it came off the power play for the Canadiens first goal with the man advantage.
“It’s tough right now,” the Canadiens’ Nick Suzuki said. “It’s just the confidence for our group just seems to be low. There’s plays that we make all the time and we’re not executing them. It’s definitely a tough patch. … Good teams find a way to get out of it, and we need to really bounce back.”
Sebastien Aho struck for two goals for Carolina.
After a scoreless first period, Aho and Andrei Svechnikov scored in the middle frame for a 2-0 lead. Toffoli cut the lead in half before the end of the period.
Kotkaniemi and Aho added two goals in the third period.
“That’s tough for anybody new, whether you’re a young kid or not, you don’t want to hear that,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But I think he expected that kind of reaction, it’s just the way it is. So he answered that the best way he could.”
Jake Allen made 29 saves in the loss.
“I think the score for me doesn’t reflect the game as much,” Montreal head coach Dominique Ducharme said. “I thought it was a competitive game, a hard-fought game. But we made a couple of mistakes, and they made us pay for those.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.