CANADIENS FALTER IN CAROLINA
Waste Price’s solid effort in 3-1 loss
RALEIGH, N.C. The three-day Christmas break in the schedule seemed to do Canadiens goalie Carey Price some good, but didn’t help his teammates.
The Canadiens came out very sluggish in the first period Wednesday night against the Carolina Hurricanes, but Price kept them in the game until his teammates could skate off the turkey dinners and find their legs. The score was tied 1-1 heading into the third period, but with Alex Galchenyuk in the penalty box for holding, Sebastian Aho scored a power-play goal at the 9:15 mark and then added an empty-netter at 18:36 to give the Hurricanes a 3-1 victory and drop the Canadiens record to 16-17-4.
Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Hurricanes in the first period and Galchenyuk scored for the Canadiens in the second.
Price stopped 33 shots, but the Canadiens continued to fire blanks, heading into the game ranked No. 25 in the NHL in offence. They had only 24 shots on Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward.
Slow start: The Canadiens were totally outplayed in the first period and outshot 16-6, but Price only allowed one goal. Teravainen opened the scoring at the 3:44 mark on the second shot Price faced. Canadiens defenceman Karl Alzner coughed up the puck to Teravainen, who beat Price high to the glove side with a great shot for his ninth goal of the season. While the Canadiens had only six shots in the period — and one in the first 10 minutes — two of them were great scoring chances with Max Pacioretty (short-handed) and Galchenyuk both stopped while in alone against Ward.
Better second period: The Canadiens found their legs in the second period, outshooting the Hurricanes 13-8 and getting a goal from Galchenyuk. The goal, scored at the 5:19 mark, was a one-man show by Galchenyuk, who took the puck in his own zone and entered the Hurricanes zone down the right side before cutting to the middle and beating Ward with a wicked wrist shot high to the glove side from the top of the faceoff circle for his ninth goal of the season.
Third-period winner: Aho’s powerplay goal came on a rebound after Price had made a great stop on Jordan Staal from in close.
Hudon at centre: After being a healthy scratch for the previous two games, Charles Hudon got back in the Canadiens’ lineup playing centre for the first time this season between Nicolas Deslauriers and Daniel Carr on the fourth line. Centres Byron Froese and Jacob de la Rose were scratched from the lineup.
No Weber or Schlemko: Defencemen Shea Weber (foot injury) and David Schlemko (flu) didn’t make the trip to Carolina, opening a spot for Brett Lernout, who was called up from the AHL’s Laval Rocket on Wednesday morning. Weber has now missed four straight games with his injury and won’t play again until next week at the earliest. Same thing for Schlemko.
What’s next?: After the game, the Canadiens flew to Tampa, where they will face the Lightning Thursday night.