Mar 29, 2026; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; Montreal Canadiens center Nick Suzuki (14) celebrates his goal with left wing Juraj Slafkovsky (20), right wing Cole Caufield (13) and right wing Ivan Demidov (93) against the Carolina Hurricanes during the third period at Lenovo Center. | Credit: James Guillory-Imagn Images
Josh Anderson is unable to play with his illness, so Arber Xhekaj comes into today’s game. Not as a defenceman, but as a fourth-line forward.
First period
The Hurricanes have come out as the better team, so it seems the Habs didn’t learn anything from the previous meeting. They might give up more than 16 shots at this rate.
Five minutes in, the Canadiens haven’t won a single puck battle. How do they go from last night’s performance to this?
The puck has barely been out of Montreal’s end, and now the Hurricanes have drawn a deserved power play.
Joke’s on Carolina. Montreal has to touch before they can get a power play, and they haven’t done that yet this game. The ref has his arm up for at least a minute before there’s a reason to blow the whistle.
It’s a pretty embarrassing display from Montreal right now.
Andrei Svechnikov scores on Carolina’s eighth shot of the period at 8:37. Montreal hasn’t tested Frederik Andersen once.
Zachary Bolduc gets Montreal’s first shot at 11:49.
Lane Hutson turns the puck over at the offensive blue line, and Jayden Struble doesn’t have the passing lane covered on the two-on-one. Dobeš just managed to keep the shot Carolina creates out of the net.
For some reason, Nikolaj Ehlers decides to cross-check Kaiden Guhle in the collarbone as they battle in front of the net, and Montreal’s first offensive-zone faceoff of the game will come on a power play.
The faceoff is lost, and that offensive-zone time lasts about two seconds.
They do regroup to get a scramble in front of Carolina’s net and a good scoring chance for Hutson.
Montreal added four shots to its total during those two minutes.
It’s really amazing that Carolina is winning 100% of the 50/50 puck battles.
Dobeš stretches to get across the net, and seems to have tweaked his knee. He shakes it off after a period in which he prepared for 31 shot attempts from Carolina, but we’ll see if he’s able to come back out for the second.
In the 18 minutes of the intermission, the Habs need to commit to putting more effort into the one-on-one battles. You can’t let an opponent come away with the puck on every single occasion like they did in the first.
Second period
Dobeš is back in the net. Hopefully he’s not pushing something he shouldn’t be.
Hutson breaks containment in the defensive zone, and the Hurricanes are beat. The players who were meant to funnel the play instead had to scramble to get to Montreal’s forwards, and they could catch neither Cole Caufield nor Nick Suzuki as the two combine for a goal off the rush.
Lane Hutson with the stretch pass for Caufield, he finds Nick Suzuki in the middle, and somehow the #Habs have tied this game.
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Carolina isn’t getting the nearly the zone time this period that they had to start the game. They had to learn all over again, but the Habs seem to have figured out how to deal with their tactics a little bit.
Needing a boost now perhaps, the Hurricanes send six players out on the ice. That will give the Canadiens a chance to take the lead.
Caufield tries his patented flip to the short-side top corner, but I think he double-tapped the puck and sent it over the glass.
The top unit looked dangerous, but the puck wouldn’t go in for it.
Weirdly, the Hurricanes carried momentum from that power play. They’re back to playing keepaway in the offensive zone, which hadn’t been happening much in this period.
Once again Carolina’s form breaks just enough for the Canadiens to score. Shayne Gostisbehere moves over to take Suzuki, who is already covered, leaving Caufield alone to walk in for a shot. There’s not double tap this time as he scored goal #46.
46 for Cole Caufield.
#Habs up 2-1
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 7:38 PM
The Canadiens have half the shots, but twice the goals of Carolina.
Montreal wins a defensive-zone faceoff, Dobson gets tripped as he tries to carry the puck up the wall, and Montreal is back on the power play.
Not for long, though. A pass from Slafkovský isn’t exactly where Suzuki wants it, but he has time to adjust and take a couple of whacks at it to get it to go.
Barely any time to work with, but Nick Suzuki gets a buzzer beater on the power play.
Against all odds, the #Habs lead 3-1
— Matt Drake (@drakemt.bsky.social) March 29, 2026 at 7:43 PM
This is a very undeserved 3-1 lead, but hopefully the Habs don’t feel guilty enough to give it back in the third period.
Third period
The expected parade to the penalty box begins very early as Suzuki goes off for tapping the foot of Svechnikov.
Montreal survives Carolina’s potent power play without facing anything really dangerous.
Sebastian Aho fires a shot off the post.
Suzuki and Caufield once again go on a rush, and Svechnikov gets his stick in Caufield’s gloves to prevent #47, at least for now as he sends Montreal to a power play.
The plan seems to be more about taking two minutes safely off the board. A fourth goal would have been nice, however.
There was nothing safe about Bolduc bobbling the puck at the blue line and giving up a two-on-one. Dobeš calmly made the stop.
With 10 minutes to play, the Hurricanes have really ramped up the pressure. Montreal is trying to match with more aggressive stick-checks.
Carolina has also doubled down on the neutral-zone interference to prevent a break the other way. There’s a reason the rushes have all been Caufield and Suzuki but no Slafkovský, who has usually been getting back to his feet as the chances come.
It’s Montreal’s turn to play with six. The task to keep the Hurricanes off the board will be a little tougher for the next two minutes.
Everyone is selling out for shot blocks. Several big ones kill off the penalty and leave just four minutes on the clock.
Carolina’s net is empty with over three minutes to play. Will Dobeš go for a goal?
They’ll settle for the 3-1 win in this one.
A sweep of the Hurricanes, even if they were probably the second-best team in the series even if the aggregate score was 15-8.
Five wins in a row come at a great time, and should make it almost impossible for them to be caught.
There’s just one day off after this game, then they’ll hit the ice versus another of the league’s best possession teams in Tampa on Tuesday.
EOTP 3 Stars
3) They have their own brand of stress-inducing entertainment
2) Creativity and finishing skill were never really in his repertoire
1) We’ll deal with that in the Conference Finals
