PACIORETTY SCORES 2 GOALS, HABS WIN THIRD STRAIGHT

GOAL SCORERS

CAR:   J. Staal (03:38 - 1st)

MTL:   A. Markov (PPG, 15:03 - 1st) , J. Halpern (01:46 - 2nd) , M. Pacioretty (10:58 - 3rd) , M. Pacioretty (EN, 19:30 - 3rd)

GOALIES

CAR: J. Peters (L)

 MTL: C. Price (W)

           Earlier tonight in Montreal, the 2nd place Canadiens took on the 10th place Hurricanes in search of their 3rd straight win. 3 minutes in, Dwyer centred the puck to Jordan Staal and he scored to make it 1-0 Carolina. Late in the first with the Habs on a powerplay,  Subban played the puck to Markov at the point and he one-timed a shot past Peters to tie the game. Montreal dominated the first, out shooting the Hurricanes 11 to 5.

    1:46 into the second, Beaulieu centred the puck to Jeff Halpern and he scored his first of the season to give Montreal the lead. That was Beaulieus first career NHL point. The shots in the second were 9 to 8 Montreal. 11 minutes into the third, Pacioretty skated up the right wing and drove the puck to the net and was stopped, but he put home his own rebound to make it 3-1. Pacioretty would add an empty net goal as the Habs win 4-1.

    This was a big win for the Habs as they are now 5 points back of Pittsburgh for 1st in the East and it was another costly lose for the Hurricanes as they sit 3 points back of the 8th place Rangers. "We haven't consistently found our game," said center Jordan Staal, who scored his team's goal. "We've had some spurts and played a really solid game in Winnipeg (on Saturday). Again, even tonight, we had some spurts here and there, but it's just not a consistent game that we're playing."

        In the win, Price made 18 saves. In the loss, Peters made 26 saves."Carey made some key saves. We only allowed 19 shots, but there were some quality scoring chances and Carey was really good again tonight," Therrien said.Early in the third, Dwyer collided knee on knee with Armstrong. Armstrong left the game with a lower body injury and didn't return.

Written By Andrew Di Pardo