In Raleigh Wednesday night, Cam Ward made 23 saves including several stellar stops in the first period to help the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
“We knew going into it, it was going to be fairly low scoring facing Carey Price, who in my opinion is the best goalie in the world,” Ward said. “We got two goals today, and 
fortunately that was good enough to win.”
Sebastian Aho struck for two goals including the game-winner on the power play in the third period.
The win was the third straight for the Canes who improved to 17-12-7.
“Overall, I thought we outplayed them, so that was good,” Carolina’s Jordan Staal said. “I think both teams were struggling to get that extra jump, but I thought our game got better in the third period. We started moving the puck a little quicker like we wanted to.”
Alex Galchenyuk scored the lone goals for the Habs. “When you look at tonight, [forward Jonathan] Drouin had a bunch of turnovers, and you can’t play that way,” Montreal head coach Claude Julien said. “You need to make sure that you’re managing the puck well, and maybe instead of looking for those fancy passes, sometimes you’ve got to do it the right way and throw some pucks at the net.”
Montreal has dropped two straight and fell to 16-17-4.
The Habs were outshot 16-6 in the opening frame but the six were mostly quality, in-close attempts.
Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Canes in the fist period to give the Canes a 1-0 lead; the goal came off a keep-in at the blue line by Justin Faulk.
“[Faulk] was in on a lot of offense,” Canes head coach Bill Peters said of the defenseman. “I think his game is coming. He’s skating more, and he’s more involved physically. We need him to be the leader back there among those young guys.”
[WATCH: All Canadiens vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Carey Price 33 saves in the loss.
“I think we can do a lot better. It’s a matter of how much you want to throw pucks to the net, how much you want to go there and make things happen. We need to get better in that area, there’s no doubt about it,” Julien said after the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.