Hurricanes score three on power play, one shorthanded to defeat Canadiens

Sebastian Aho had his sixth straight multipoint game, and the Carolina Hurricanes scored four goals on special teams in a 4-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday.

Carolina scored three power-play goals and one shorthanded in its first game since Dec. 18.
Teuvo Teravainen scored twice, and Jaccob Slavin had three assists for the Hurricanes (22-7-1), who had their previous four games postponed.
"Well, obviously, the outcome is great," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "It was kind of what I thought it was going to look like. It wasn't great. We were certainly rusty with our decision-making and how quick we were making plays, lots of turnovers.
"But at the end of the day, obviously our penalty kill was great (5-for-5) and our goaltender was nice. He made some big saves early to keep us in the game and the power play connected, so definitely a good win."

Antti Raanta made 26 saves for his 14th NHL shutout, his first since Feb. 4, 2020, for the Arizona Coyotes in a 3-0 win against the Edmonton Oilers.
"I was just trying to battle hard," Raanta said. "I wasn't trying to make all the saves as perfectly as it can be, I was just trying to keep the puck out of the net and I managed to do that. So the second period I started to feel more comfortable in the net again and we started to move better and be more comfortable and more in control."
Sam Montembeault made 34 saves in his second straight start for the Canadiens (7-22-4), who lost their second straight after having four games postponed.
"I thought we did good things 5-on-5, unfortunately we didn't score on any of the chances we had," Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme said. "If we look at it 5-on-5, it was 0-0. Special teams made the difference in the game."
Nino Niederreiter gave Carolina a 1-0 lead when he spun to his left in front of Montembeault to score on a rebound of Slavin's point shot for a power-play goal at 10:46 of the first period. Teravainen made it 2-0 at 13:29 with a shorthanded goal on a 2-on-1 pass from Aho.
Teravainen then scored on a power play at 17:01 of the second to push the lead to 3-0. He one-timed Martin Necas' cross-ice pass past Montembeault's glove from the right face-off dot.
Aho, who missed three games from Dec. 12-18 while in NHL COVID-19 protocol, got his second assist on the play to tie Kevin Dineen and Mike Rogers for the longest personal streak of multipoint games in Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers history. Aho has scored 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in the run.
Seth Jarvis scored Carolina's third power-play goal for a 4-0 lead at 10:52 of the third period.
"Special teams was huge for us tonight," Teravainen said. "Power play, nice goals, and the penalty kill was really good. There was a lot of penalties both ways, so that's usual. When you do good on those you win the games a lot of times."

Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher left after the second period. He is day to day with a lower-body injury, Ducharme said. Forward Jonathan Drouin was a late scratch because of a non-COVID illness.
"Jonathan didn't feel well at all before the game," Ducharme said. "So he had a rapid test for COVID and that came up negative. He took the warmup but he didn't have any energy. We hope he's going to be OK for our next game (Saturday at the Florida Panthers).
NOTES:Dineen scored 14 points (five goals, nine assists) from Dec. 28, 1988-Jan. 10, 1989, and Rogers scored 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) from March 28-April 6, 1980. … Canadiens forward Brandon Baddock made his NHL debut and had six hits in 8:24. The 26-year-old was recalled from the taxi squad Tuesday. … Carolina forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi has scored six points (one goal, five assists) in a four-game point streak. … Carolina is 6-for-11 (54.5 percent) on the power play the past three games and 19-for-19 on the penalty kill the past six games.