Hurricanes top Canadiens for third straight victory

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Sebastian Aho scored twice in the third period to help lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-1 win against the Montreal Canadiens at PNC Arena on Wednesday.

Cam Ward made 23 saves for the Hurricanes (17-12-7), who have won three in a row and six of their past seven (6-1-0). Ward has won five straight starts.
Alex Galchenyuk scored for the Canadiens (16-17-4), who have lost two in a row.
WATCH: [All Canadiens vs. Hurricanes highlights]
Aho made it 2-1 on a backhand at 9:15 after Carey Price (33 saves) stopped Jordan Staal and Elias Lindholm in close. He scored into an empty net at 18:36 to make it 3-1.
"Overall, I thought we outplayed them, so that was good," 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."
Carolina took a 1-0 lead after a Montreal turnover in the first period. Justin Faulk kept Karl Alzner's clearing attempt inside the blue line and backhanded the puck to Teuvo Teravainen, who scored his first goal in 17 games with a one-timer at 3:44.
"[Faulk] was in on a lot of offense," Hurricanes 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."
Price made 15 saves in the first period, when Montreal was outshot 16-6.

"Carey Price kept us in, in the first period when we needed a goaltender to keep us in and at least try and win ourselves a hockey game," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said.
Galchenyuk tied the game 1-1 when he scored on a rush at 5:19 of the second period, beating Ward over the glove for his ninth of the season.
Ward, who began the season as the backup after the Hurricanes acquired Scott Darling in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks on April 29 and signed him to a four-year, $16.6 million contract, has started five of the past seven games.
"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."
Julien said, "When you look at tonight, [forward Jonathan] Drouin had a bunch of turnovers, and you can't play that way. 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."

Goal of the game

Aho's power-play goal at 9:15 of the third period.

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Save of the game

Ward's save on Pacioretty at 11:52 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Galchenyuk's goal at 5:19 of the second period.

They said it

"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." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien
"I think we're starting to see some swagger from the guys. That's confidence, right? You get into a bit of a rhythm, you start winning hockey games. Now we're more talkative in the locker room and on the ice, trying to help each other. It's all positive signs." -- Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward

Need to know

The Canadiens' 24 shots matched their lowest total of the season; they had that many in a 6-2 loss against the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 9. Montreal had six forwards with no more than one shot. … Staal played in his 800th NHL game. … The Hurricanes are 15-3-2 when scoring first.

What's next

Canadiens: At the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV).
Hurricanes: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; ATTSN-PT, FS-CR, NHL.TV).