RALEIGH, N.C. - Despite a five-point night from Sebastian Aho, the Carolina Hurricanes couldn't overcome the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday, falling 7-5 at Lenovo Center.
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The first five minutes of Thursday's tilt resembled Carolina's loss from two nights earlier, as a pair of Canadiens tallies separated by just 56 seconds lifted the visitors to a quick lead. Before the horn sounded for the end of the period, though, the Hurricanes had turned things around and taken the lead.
Nikolaj Ehlers kicked off the comeback with a toe-drag shot from the left circle at 10:47, capitalizing on a power play he drew in the neutral zone. Just 92 seconds later, Aho tied things up with a deflection of a Joel Nystrom one-timer. Aho then picked up his third point of the period with an assist on Andrei Svechnikov's go-ahead goal, as he pitchforked a shot past Jakub Dobes at 14:51.
Momentum continued in Carolina's favor on the other side of the intermission, as Alexander Nikishin doubled his team's lead with a power-play bomb from the blue line just 54 seconds into the middle frame. But as quickly as the pendulum swung the Canes' way in the first period, it did the opposite in the second. Sammy Blais stopped the bleeding and brought the Habs within a goal just past the five-minute mark, and two tucks in a span of 23 seconds late in the period gave Montreal a slim lead heading into the third.
Carolina's hope for a second comeback took a hit when Juraj Slafkovsky's seeing-eye shot made it a two-goal hole at 11:20, but Aho managed to claw a goal back late, allowing the Canes to pull their goaltender in hopes of tying things up once more. Unfortunately, that was as close as they'd come, as Lane Hutson's long-range empty-netter sealed the two points for Montreal.
Brandon Bussi suffered his first defeat at Lenovo Center, stopping 15 of 21 shots in the Carolina cage.
