Hurricanes rally to beat Habs
RALEIGH, N.C. -- Jeff Skinner, Teuvo Teravainen and Victor Rask scored less than six minutes apart in the third period as the Carolina Hurricanes rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night.
Carolina defenseman Ron Hainsey assisted on the first two Carolina goals with shots from the point as the Hurricanes (6-6-4) won their third straight. Cam Ward stopped 31 shots to improve to 4-1-2 in November.
Meanwhile, Eastern Conference-leading Montreal (13-3-2) is now 0-2-1 in its last three after starting the season 13-1-1.
The Hurricanes were coming off a 1-0 victory over defending Western Conference champion San Jose, but managed just eight shots through two periods and fell behind 1-0.
But Skinner scored his team-leading seventh and 150th of his career 3:12 into the third period to tie the score at 1-1, redirecting a shot by Ron Hainsey off his skate from the top of the left circle.
The Hurricanes didn't stop there as Teravainen deflected in his fifth goal of the season past Al Montoya, who was in net instead of Carey Price, who was resting to take on Toronto on Saturday night.
Less than two minutes after Carolina's second goal Rask gave his club more breathing room with his seventh as Montoya was screened on the play for a 3-1 lead midway through the third.
Andrew Shaw's third of the season with 4:31 left make it interesting down the stretch. Jeff Petry added a second-period goal and an assist, while Andrei Markov assisted on both Montreal goals to run his point streak to seven straight games.
The Canadiens have now scored first in 14 of their 18 games, but lost for the first time in regulation after doing so.
NOTES: Montreal second-leading scorer, RW Alexander Radulov, missed his second straight game with an illness. ... Carolina faced its fifth backup goalie in the last six games and fourth in a row. ... The Hurricanes had been called for the second fewest penalties in the league heading into Friday's action. ... Montreal played in just its seventh road game compared to 11 at home. ... Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec played in his 188th straight game. ... Carolina G Cam Ward started his fifth straight game and 10th of the last 11. ... Former Carolina LW Chris Terry was recalled from St. John's this week and recorded an assist in Montreal's 4-3 overtime loss to Florida.