There was only one penalty called in the contest's opening 20, but it proved costly for the Habs early. Teuvo Teravainen fired the puck through traffic and Sebastian Aho deflected it past Jake Allen at 3:48 to open the scoring with the man advantage.
Allen made a number of big saves in the first period, keeping the Habs within one until Andrei Svechnikov doubled the Canes lead with just 12 seconds left in the frame. Carolina outshot Montreal 16-9 in the stanza.
Back for the second period and the Hurricanes got on the board first once again. Teravainen took a pass from Aho and wristed it into the back of the net to make it 3-0 at 3:43.
Montreal took a trio of back-to-back penalties midway through the period, but Allen stood tall to resist widening the deficit, including on a pair of 5-on-3s.
After 40 minutes of play, Carolina held a 42-18 advantage in shots.
The Habs got their first chance on the power play early in the third, but were held off the board across three consecutive opportunities with the extra man. Montreal notably limited Carolina to just two shots in the final frame while testing Andersen 14 times.
Svechnikov added an empty netter to end things 4-0.
The Canadiens will be back in action on Saturday, when they travel to Tampa to wrap up their four-game road trip. Game time is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
