Despite being outplayed for much of the first three games, Montreal had managed to stay competitive—winning one and dropping two straight overtime losses. That wasn’t the case Wednesday night.
Carolina dominated the play and the scoreboard reflected it. The Hurricanes shut out the Canadiens 4–0, extending their series lead to three games to one.
There was not much Montreal could do right from the get-go. Carolina looked stronger, faster, and fresher throughout.
The Hurricanes opened the scoring at 14:59 of the first period. Sebastian Aho scored his fourth of the playoffs on the power play, finishing off a feed from Nikolaj Ehlers.
Just over a minute later, Jordan Staal doubled the margin by tipping in a K’andre Miller pass at the front of the net, beating Jacob Dobes to make it 2–0.
The Canadiens tried to escape the period down two, but that didn’t happen. Logan Stankoven finished a two-on-one, taking a pass from Jackson Blake and sliding the puck by Dobes for the 3–0 lead heading into the locker room.
Montreal put up more of a fight in the second twenty, generating 10 of their 18 total shots on net, but none of them beat Frederik Anderson. The score remained 3–0 going into the final period.
Carolina put the game away in the third, smothering Montreal and limiting them to just three shots on goal. Andrei Svechnikov added an empty-net tally at 18:06 to make the final 4–0.
The Hurricanes will try to close out the series Friday night, back home in Carolina.
