MONTREAL — Eric Staal scored 2:55 into the third period and Cam Ward made 34 saves to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday night.
Staal broke a tie with his 24th goal, beating Carey Price from the right edge of the crease. Brandon Sutter drew the Hurricanes even at 1 when he got credit for his 20th goal early in the second.
Ward stopped 11 shots in the first, 13 in the second and 10 in the third to win his second straight start after missing 17 games because of a back injury.
Carolina, which has won three of four, is 11th in the Eastern Conference with 75 points, seven behind Montreal.
Marc-Andre Bergeron scored his first goal since Dec. 31 on a power play in the first as the Canadiens outshot Carolina 12-2 in the opening period, and 35-27 overall.
Price stopped 25 shots for Montreal, which has gone on a 1-3-2 skid in the wake of its season-high six-game winning streak.
The Canadiens are in a three-way tie for sixth in the East with Philadelphia and Boston with 82 points, just two points ahead of ninth-place Atlanta.
Veteran referee Kerry Fraser called his final regular-season game in Montreal, though it was his partner, Dean Morton, who was front and center on a pair of significant rulings.
Morton immediately waved off an apparent goal by Carolina’s Sergei Samsonov 5:58 in after former Canadiens right wing Tom Kostopoulos bowled over Price.
Kostopoulos was sent off for goalie interference on the play and Montreal found itself with a 5-on-3 advantage for 40 seconds when Hurricanes defenseman Jay Harrison was called for hooking Brian Gionta on a partial breakaway that Ward thwarted with a sprawling stop at 7:18.
Carolina killed off the rest of Kostopoulos’ penalty before Bergeron drove a slap shot from the point past Ward for his 11th goal at 8:04.
Sutter got credit for drawing the Hurricanes even 3:44 into the second. Morton initially waved off the goal but a video review overturned his ruling. Price stopped Sutter’s initial shot — Carolina’s third of the game — but Canadiens defenseman Roman Hamrlik slid into the rebound and pushed the puck across the goal line before the net was dislodged.
Notes
Canadian Olympic medalists Alexandre Bilodeau and Jennifer Heil were greeted by standing ovations when they were introduced before the game. Bilodeau won Canada’s first Olympic gold medal on home soil when he claimed the men’s moguls title in Vancouver. Heil was second in the women’s moguls after claiming gold in the event four years earlier in Turin. … Canadiens RW Sergei Kostitsyn left the game after his first shift of the second period because of a lower-body injury. He did not return.