Canadiens vs. Hurricanes Top Six Minutes: Montreal wins season series with Carolina

First period

• Josh Anderson is back in the lineup, but his first shift doesn’t last very long as he gets sent off for interference a second after Phillip Danault won a defensive-zone faceoff.
• Nikolaj Ehlers, the hottest goal-scorer for the Hurricanes, tries to send a pass to Seth Jarvis at the top of the crease, but instead Mike Matheson deflects the puck behind Jakub Dobeš in his attempt to cut off the pass.
• The puck gets behind Lane Hutson and Taylor Hall turns it into a breakaway. Dobeš comes up with an important save to keep the deficit from growing.
• It’s all Carolina in the opening minutes.
• Now the Canadiens are getting into the offensive zone but can’t work the puck off the boards. One step at a time I suppose.
• Matheson has his stick ripped out of his hands on a Hurricanes zone entry. Oliver Kapanen comes over to help win the puck battle, but ends up slinging the puck toward his own net to a waiting Jordan Staal, and it’s a 2-0 game.
• The Habs are consistently making the wrong play in their zone, skating the puck into traffic when they’re opening, passing to a play who is covered. They’re making things easy for Carolina at the moment.
• Looking completely overwhelmed, the Canadiens get an icing call from Carolina, and turn the faceoff into a goal. Jayden Struble pulls the back back against the grain just enough to open a lane to the net, and his waist-high wristshot is deflected in the slot by Oliver Kapanen to make it a 2-1 game.

Jayden Struble point shot, Oliver Kapanen gets a piece on the way and the #Habs are somehow within a goal here.

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— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 24, 2026 at 8:32 PM

• The Habs are getting the puck on their sticks in the defensive zone, but no one is able to make the necessary play with it. Carolina gets some credit for their pressure, but it’s just as much Montreal making its own life difficult.
• Montreal gets a couple of scoring chances with the top line out following another faceoff win. That seems to be the recipe for success.
• Now it’s Montreal hemming the Hurricanes in their zone.
• An excellent transition has the puck come to Juraj Slafkovský at the blue line, and as he’s about to set up Cole Caufield to go in one-on-one with Frederik Andersen, Sebastian Aho trips him, sending Montreal to a power play. With just 0.9 seconds remaining, this man advantage will carry over to the second period.
• It almost didn’t as Demidov took a one-handed swing at the puck off the faceoff to put it toward Andersen.
• A bad opening two-thirds of the period for Montreal, but a strong end that has them back in it, and a chance to even things up after the intermission.

Second period

• Caufield gets a shot from the opposite side of the goal line to what he usually does, and hits the side of the cage.
• Suzuki is tripped on a zone entry. Montreal wastes about 15 seconds, but will get 39 seconds of five-on-three time. Martin St-Louis uses his timeout to make sure they get the most out of it.
• The first penalty expires with no shots on the five-on-three.
• The second unit gets a couple of dangerous looks, but the opportunity to tie the game is squandered.
• The players keep curling back with the puck hoping to gain some space, and that just turns what was a chance to get the puck out into more pressure from the Hurricanes.
• Suzuki takes a slapshot from the point, and Andersen leaves one of the worst rebounds I’ve ever seen to sent the puck directly across the ice, where Caufield is waiting. He’s made the adjustment and scores from low on the right side this time. His 44th goal.

Brutal rebound from Andersen and #44 for Cole Caufield!

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) March 24, 2026 at 9:17 PM

• Noah Dobson has a bit of space and gets a little extra on a wristshot. Cole Caufield deflects it in the slot, and it ultimately goes off the leg of Slafkovský and in.

FORTY FIVE FOR CAUFIELD

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) March 24, 2026 at 9:23 PM

• (Just ignore that caption above. Everyone got a little excited for another Caufield goal.)
• You could say the Canadiens are lucky to have three goals, but two of them were the result of getting tips in the slot and tough for any goalie to stop.
• The crowd hasn’t heard the announcement of the last goal being Slafkovský’s yet, and gets very excited for another Caufield rush thinking a chance to toss some hats it coming.
• Demidov goes off in a bit of pain after blocking a shot, but it doesn’t look like something he’s overly concerned about on the bench.
• Montreal keeps the puck in Carolina’s end for three minutes and elevates its shot total with a flurry of looks. The difference in shots is down to seven.
• Each team is getting called for running interference on an attempt by the Hurricanes to gain the blue line. Kaiden Guhle grabs Jordan Martinook to slow him down, and Martinook in turn steps in Brendan Gallagher’s path. The ice will open up a bit with some four-on-four.
• Dobson tries to spin away with the puck off another faceoff win and gets tripped. Caufield will go to work with a four-on-three power play.
• Slafkovský makes a great move at the blue line to get in alone on Andersen and … tries a pass through a stick to get it to Caufield that gets knocked away. He said he was going to do everything possible to set Cole up with 50 goals, but in that instance he needed to shoot the puck.
• Like the second period, the third will begin with Montreal on the power play, for another minute.
• A very different period for Montreal, outshooting Carolina 11-10 and outscoring them 2-0. No matter the opponent, it seems to be just a matter of time before they figure out their tactics and start to play their game.

Third period

• The top unit believes it needs the perfect setup to score the fourth goal, so it ends up getting no shots.
• Danault gets tossed out of the neutral zone faceoff. Anderson comes in and easily slings the puck back to his defenceman. It might be his best talent.
• Suzuki chips the puck in and he and the defenceman jockey for position in the race to it. The linesman calls it icing because they too often fail to read the situation.
• Demidov dangles right through the slot to get in on Andersen but just can’t quite reach the puck far enough around the goaltender’s pad to tuck it in. That goal would have started a wave.
• Evans finds himself in a sudden two-on-one with Bolduc, but the pass just fails to connect at the opposite side of the crease.
• Anderson gets the next chance in alone. The crowd is enjoying the offensive pressure.
• The top line spends a lot of time it’s zone, and a tires Slafkovský tries to backhand the puck off the glass and down the ice to get a rest. His rest will be two minutes, however, because he gets under the puck and sent it out of play.
• Dobeš makes his second breadbasket save on the power play, and Slafkovský exits the box with his team still up one and 9:40 to play.
• The Habs have stopped even trying to carry the puck out of the zone and down the ice, just looking for zone clearances. It will be tough to survive this long without putting a bit of pressure on Carolina.
• Good work from Bolduc on forecheck gets a reprieve from all the Hurricanes zone time.
• Demidov faces less resistance than on his first one of the period, and this time he has the time and space to complete his lightning-quick fake deke to the backhand before tucking in the 4-2 goal.

HOLY SMOKES IVAN DEMIDOV

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— Scott Matla (@scottmatla.bsky.social) March 24, 2026 at 10:28 PM

• That’s a huge goal for the rookie to take the pressure off his team.
• Now they’re singing “Ole!”
• The third line almost scored the third goal, but St-Louis is going to be unhappy that the defencemen allowed Logan Stankoven to get behind them for a half-ice breakaway. Dobeš makes a critical save to prevent it from becoming a one-goal game once more.
• Andersen leaves the net with over four minutes to play.
• The Hurricanes’ skaters are doing a better job defending the net than Andersen did.
• Evans hit the empty net with one minute to go, and that will put the stamp on a big two points for the Canadiens.
• Montreal goes two-for-two so far versus the Hurricanes, winning the season series against the best team in the Eastern Conference with one final game on Sunday.
• The Canadiens gain a bit more ground over the wild-card hopefuls with the results tonight.
• They will now get set for another tough test versus the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday at the Bell Centre.

EOTP 3 Stars

3) Plenty of space for both to score a couple per game

2) At least until the next difficult 10-minute stretch

1) He has a point-per-game season in his immediate future