Pacioretty, Habs edge Hurricanes
MONTREAL -- Max Pacioretty struck early in the third period to lift the Montreal Canadiens to a 2-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night at the Bell Centre.
Andrew Shaw also scored for Montreal (15-4-2). Elias Lindholm connected for the Hurricanes, whose five-game winning streak was snapped.
Carey Price stopped 30 shots while counterpart Cam Ward made 20 saves for Carolina (8-7-4).
The win was the 390th of Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien's career, moving him into a tie with Fred Shero for 36th all-time in the NHL.
Lindholm, who snapped a 16-game goal-less drought on Sunday, notched his second in the past three games to opening the scoring at 10:32 of the first period. The 21-year-old picked up a rolling pass from Victor Rask and once it settled, fired a shot from the top of the dot that beat Price over his shoulder.
Shaw tied it with his fourth of the season just over a minute and a half later. Charles Hudon picked up David Desharnais' pass along the right side and skated down low and behind the goal line before backhanding a perfect feed to a falling Shaw in front.
Pacioretty put Montreal ahead just 14 seconds into the third period. Brendan Gallagher found Tomas Plekanec in the high slot, and the center spun around before taking a shot that hit the end boards and bounced out to Pacioretty at the left edge of the net, who tucked it in between Ward's pad and the post.
It was the Canadiens' 20,800th goal in their franchise history.
NOTES: Montreal made several changes to its line-up, with LW Charles Hudon and D Greg Pateryn drawing back in, while D Mark Barberio made his season debut after he was called up from the AHL's St. John's IceCaps on Wednesday. ... Canadiens LW Daniel Carr was a healthy scratch and D Nathan Beaulieu missed the game after taking a puck to the throat in Tuesday's game. ... Carolina C Andrej Nestrasil was scratched for a sixth straight game while D Klas Dahlbeck sat out his fifth game in a row. ... The game was the middle of a three-game Canadian swing for the Hurricanes, who were in Toronto on Tuesday and will visit Ottawa on Saturday.