McElhinney makes 48 saves to lift Hurricanes past Canadiens

MONTREAL --Curtis McElhinney made 48 saves, and the Carolina Hurricanes spoiled Shea Weber's season debut for the Montreal Canadiens with a 2-1 win at Bell Centre on Tuesday.

"It's nice to be busy," said McElhinney, who has allowed five goals in his past four starts (4-0-0). "I mean, obviously we don't want to be giving up 49 shots, but I felt good in there."
Victor Rask and Trevor van Riemsdyk scored for Carolina (12-9-3), which has won four of its past five games.
WATCH: [All Hurricanes vs. Canadiens highlights]
"Obviously, the win's all that matters, but we got fortunate tonight," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It's really probably the first game this year that was like that. We've had a couple of those go the other way against us, so now I know how it feels where the goalie just stole the game. And we need that sometimes."

Phillip Danault scored, and Carey Price made 20 saves for Montreal (11-9-5), which has lost five straight (0-3-2) and has scored two goals or fewer in four straight.
"It's tough right now, but there were a lot of positives from the game tonight," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "Unfortunately, we're leaving precious points behind us."
Weber, who had an assist, was playing his first game since Dec. 16, 2017. He had arthroscopic surgery June 19 to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, which followed surgery March 13 to repair a torn tendon in his left foot.
"It definitely felt better as the game went on," said Weber, who was named Canadiens captain Oct. 1. "I think it's going to keep getting better as we go here, get more comfortable being in those game situations. Obviously, practice is different than being in those actual situations where you have to read and react and things are happening quickly. It will be good to go along here and get better as we go."
Rask gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 7:45 of the first period when he redirected Jaccob Slavin's point shot past Price. It was his first goal in four games since he returned after having surgery on his right hand Sept. 13.

Van Riemsdyk made it 2-0 at 11:59 of the second period after his pass deflected into the net off the left skate of Canadiens defenseman Victor Mete.
"I still don't know how it went in or whatever, but it went in," said van Riesmdyk, who stopped a wraparound attempt by Jonathan Drouin with his stick on the goal line at 4:39 of the third period.
Danault cut it to 2-1 at 9:29, and Max Domi hit the left post with a shot at 18:19 of the third period with Price pulled for an extra skater.
"[McElhinney] made some good saves, but I think we hit a couple of posts, couple of missed chances on empty nets, and sometimes that's the way it goes," Weber said. "But we definitely have to bear down on [our net] at this point."

They said it

"He was real calm in there, and we were running around a little bit and he settled it down. And obviously, he was the difference in the hockey game." -- Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on goalie Curtis McElhinney
"That was special. Obviously, I was nervous before the game and anxious to get my first shift out of the way, so that definitely helped." -- Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber on the fans cheering for him during his first shift

Need to know

Hurricanes defenseman Jake Bean had one shot in 8:07 of ice time in his NHL debut, and Brind'Amour said he made a couple of nice plays. "I know we didn't use him as much as he'd probably like, but it was a good first game for him." … Weber had 13 shot attempts, including three on goal, and led all skaters with 25:19 of ice time.

What's next

Hurricanes:Host the Anaheim Ducks on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; FS-CR, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:Host the New York Rangers on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVAS, MSG 2, NHL.TV)