In Montreal Tuesday, Curtis McElhinney was sensational for the visiting Carolina Hurricanes in stopping 48 shots from the Canadiens in a 2-1 win for the Canes.
“It’s nice to be busy,” said McElhinney, who has allowed five goals in his past four starts (4-0-0). “I mean, obviously we don’t want to be giving up 49 shots, but I felt good in there.”
Victor Rask and Trevor van Riemsdyk scored for Canes.
Carolina improved to 12-9-3 with win.
“Obviously, the win’s all that matters, but we got fortunate tonight,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “It’s really probably the first game this year that was like that. We’ve had a couple of those go the other way against us, so now I know how it feels where the goalie just stole the game. And we need that sometimes.”
The Canes have righted the ship of late with four wins in their last fives matches.
Phillip Danault scored in the third period to get the Canadiens close but McElhinney closed the door the rest of the way.
Montreal is 0-3-2 in their last five games.
“It’s tough right now, but there were a lot of positives from the game tonight,” Canadiens head coach Claude Julien said. “Unfortunately, we’re leaving precious points behind us.”
The Habs dropped to 11-9-5.
[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Canadiens highlights]
Carey Price made 20 saves in the loss.
Shea Weber returned to the lineup for Montreal for the first time in nearly a year following two surgeries.
“It definitely felt better as the game went on,” Weber said. “I think it’s going to keep getting better as we go here, get more comfortable being in those game situations. Obviously, practice is different than being in those actual situations where you have to read and react and things are happening quickly. It will be good to go along here and get better as we go.”
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