Svechnikov hat trick leads Canes to win over Canadiens Fast scores double, Aho adds four assists in win

In Raleigh, the Hurricanes blew through the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night for a 5-3 win.Andrei Svechnikov hit for a hat trick in the win.

Antti Raanta, who was recalled from the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League,  made 18 saves in the win.

“[Raanta] didn’t have a ton of work, but it was good to get him back in here and get him hopefully feeling good about the way things went,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Carolina moved to 9-13-4.

Svechnikov scored twice in the third period, his second of the game, first f the frame,  snapped a 3-3 tie at 13:51 to give the Canes a 4-3 lead.

HI hat trick came with 19 seconds left on the game clock for the final count of 5-3.

“We talk about it all the time, he’s got to get on the score sheet for us to be the team we need to be,” Brind’Amour said. “And he’s a dominant player, and to do that, you’ve got to score. He does other things, obviously, but tonight was the big difference.

Svechnikov started his hat trick at 1:35 of the opening stanza to stake Caroline to a 1-0 lead.

Jesper Fast pushed the lead to 2-0 at 12:40 of the first.

“I’ve been waiting for those a little bit this year,” Fast said. “They haven’t come easy so far, so of course it was a good feeling to get two goals today and hopefully I can ride the wave a little bit here.”

Montreal dropped to 15-14-5.

The Habs rallied back with a pair of goals

Mitchell Stephens trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 13:51of the first.

Montreal’s Mike Matheson tied the game, 2-2, with four seconds left on the clock in the first.

“I think it’s pretty clear we didn’t have our game the first 10 minutes,” Matheson said. “That’s normal after a break. I think we found it the rest of the first period, the second, too, and in the third we were there. So there was a lot of time left.”

Fast picked up a double on the night in the middle frame when he scored at 1:29.

Montreal replied with a breakaway marker from Josh Anderson with 25 seconds of fresh ice used in the third period. Cayden Primeau made 29 saves in the loss.

“We found a way to get back in the game early enough to give us a chance to win,” Anderson said. “I thought our team played well. Everybody was engaged tonight. It’s a good hockey team over there, you’ve got to give them credit, but I thought we were right there with them too.”