Canadiens unable to dig out of early hole in Game 4 loss to Hurricanes

MONTREAL -- There were about 7 1/2 minutes remaining in the game, the outcome long determined with the Montreal Canadiens down three goals to the Carolina Hurricanes and incapable of generating a shot on goal through the first 12-plus minutes of the third period.

All of a sudden, there was this chant from the crowd still remaining at Bell Centre.

"Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck!"

Those words echoed down from the upper bowl to the lower bowl, loud enough to hear on the ice and the bench. The frustrated Canadiens faithful, as energetic and hopeful as ever at the start, were left imploring their team to do the thing it said it would do more Wednesday.

"It's not fun to hear that," Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said, "but they're not wrong."

Nick Suzuki finally did shoot it on goal with 2:55 remaining. It didn't go in. It didn't matter.

The Canadiens finished the third period with three shots on goal and the game with 18. The Hurricanes had 19 in the third and 43 for the game, once again smothering the Canadiens with their pressure and forecheck from the opening face-off to the final buzzer.

This time, Montreal paid a price as Carolina scored three times in a span of 2:47 late in the first period, more than enough to roll to a 4-0 win in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final.

The Hurricanes, who won Games 2 and 3 in overtime despite similarly smothering the Canadiens, lead the best-of-7 series 3-1. They can close it out and advance to face the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final when they play Game 5 at Lenovo Center on Friday (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

"They're playing good hockey, they're making it hard on us for sure, but we've got to find more answers," Canadiens forward Alex Newhook said. "We've got to find more answers as individuals as well, hold ourselves to higher standards that we can be better than what we've been. We do that, regroup here and be hungry going into Game 5."

From the Canadiens' side, the first period was a clinic of everything you can't do against the Hurricanes.

They were slow to make decisions, not good when you don't have much time anyway. They were slow to move the puck, even worse when time and space are already limited. They were sloppy with it in their own zone, where Carolina's forecheck coupled with that carelessness caused turnover after turnover after turnover, filling the Hurricanes' tank each time.

"We have the players with the most space with the puck and we don't skate enough," St. Louis said. "We pass it to a player with no space so you kind of play into their pressure."

For some reason, going against everything St. Louis had been talking about since the end of Game 3 on Monday, the Canadiens at times stubbornly attempted make possession plays with the puck instead of simply getting rid of it with the intention of winning a battle to get it back.

"We're not playing fast enough when we have the puck with our feet," St. Louis said. "We're not playing fast enough off the puck so we can kind of bypass the pressure. And they've got really, really good sticks."

The Canadiens accurately assessed their need to be quicker with their decision-making, to think quicker into the future, and to play a more simple, direct style after getting outshot 65-25 and outattempted 161-84 in Games 2 and 3.

But for 20 minutes it was a 180-degree difference from everything the Canadiens said they needed to do to combat the Hurricanes' pressure.

If not for goalie Jakub Dobes it would have been 5-0 or 6-0 in the first period. Instead it was 3-0 on goals by Sebastian Aho on the power play at 14:59, Jordan Staal from in front of the net at 16:07, and Logan Stankoven on a 2-on-1 at 17:46.

At that point, the shots on goal were 12-4 in favor of the Hurricanes, meaning even if they decided to play without a goalie the Canadiens would still have had only a one-goal lead.

"The game changed quickly there," Suzuki said. "We had to find a way and we couldn't find one to get going."

They challenged the Hurricanes in the second period with 10 shots, including a couple of dangerous chances that goalie Frederik Andersen turned aside, but then came the third period, more stifling Hurricanes hockey and eventually the "Shoot the puck!" chant from the fans, not to mention them booing turnovers and many heading for the exits early.

"They have the right to speak what they want," Suzuki said. "I mean, we'd love to have more shots so we're kind of in the same boat as them."

So, now what?

The totals in the last three games are alarming: 108-43 in shots on goal, 256-129 in total shot attempts, and 10-4 in goals.

It'd be human nature at this point for the Canadiens to wonder how they can win one more game, let alone three in a row, against a team that is playing at its best, one that has swallowed them whole for three straight games and has won 11 of 12 in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.

"I mean, you've got to be mentally strong," St. Louis said. "You've got to believe. You've got to believe that you can actually do it. To me, I don't doubt that I believe we can do it. It wasn't our best tonight, but we'll put our best foot forward for Game 5. We'll be ready to go. Hopefully we can execute better. And we've been better on the road."