The Habs had some trouble finding their footing out of the gate. They allowed their hosts to shower Carey Price with 16 shots in the opening frame, and Teuvo Teravainen converted one such shot into a goal just 3:44 after the opening puck drop to give the 'Canes an early lead.
Despite the fact that the Canadiens - who traveled to Raleigh earlier in the day - were facing a fresh and rested Hurricanes squad, captain Max Pacioretty refused to attribute the end result to the circumstances, though he did offer up a hypothesis on where things might've gone wrong.
"We're sitting back too much on our heels. We're trying to play strong defense, but I think that when we do that, we just sit back on our heels instead of trying to play in their end. The best way we can defend is [by] trying to sustain some offensive-zone pressure, making plays and keeping the puck down there," explained Pacioretty. "That hasn't been there. That's my job and that hasn't been there at all, all year. We have to watch tape and find ways to produce."
Pacioretty, who led all Montreal forwards in ice time with 17:56, wasn't exactly sitting on his heels when he broke free on the penalty kill to get a shot alone on Cam Ward from in close in the first. But the 'Canes netminder frustrated No. 67, committing highway robbery on the Habs' sharpshooter and preserving his team's 1-0 lead in the process.
"That's what you're working for," Brendan Gallagher said of his teammates - Pacioretty among them - being denied some golden scoring opportunities throughout the contest. "The chances are there; we're able to score multiple times. It's just about putting them in. Goalies are going to make saves, but you trust that when you get those opportunities over and over again, eventually, they're going to start going in the back of the net."
The Canadiens' lone goal scorer of the night, Alex Galchenyuk, found that coveted back of the net in rather spectacular fashion. He demonstrated some superior stickhandling skill while driving the puck into the Hurricanes' end and unleashed a wrist shot with pinpoint precision that fooled Ward and tied the game, the cherry on top of a stellar outing for the 23-year-old.
"Alex came to play tonight. When he comes to play, it shows," praised head coach Claude Julien of Galchenyuk, who registered three shots on net and earned his ninth point in 10 games with the goal. "He has a good skill level, he's a guy that can certainly shoot the puck, he's got a lot going on for him now. I hope it's the start of what we're going to see from hereon in. I liked his game tonight."
Still, despite a 33-save performance - including countless seeing-eye glove saves through traffic - by Price and an improved effort by his teammates after the opening minutes, the Canadiens couldn't solve Ward the rest of the way and went down in defeat.
"The first period was, let's say, normal - because of the travel and all. Starting midway through the first, we slowly started to find ourselves again," described Julien, who coached his 220th game behind the Canadiens bench, tying him for 12th all-time alongside Jacques Demers. "We were good in the second, and in the third, it was a 1-1 game until they scored on the power play.
"I thought we competed well," he concluded. "But at the end of the day, we have to find a way to score goals."
