RALEIGH, N.C. — Eric Staal had
three goals and two assists and the Carolina Hurricanes beat Montreal
5-2 on Thursday night to prevent the Canadiens from clinching a playoff
berth.
Chad LaRose had two goals and two
assists in his first career four-point game. He and Staal scored 3 1/2
minutes apart in the second period to help the Hurricanes win their
second straight.
Brian Gionta and Marc-Andre Bergeron
scored for Montreal, which could have wrapped up a postseason berth with
one point but instead lost its second straight.
Bergeron pulled the Canadiens to 3-2
with 16:57 left with a blast from the blue line 21 seconds after Staal's
second goal. LaRose made it 4-2 by tapping in Staal's rebound with 2:38
left. Staal then polished off his 10th career hat trick with an
empty-netter with 1:15 left.
Jaroslav Halak, making his fourth
straight start since Carey Price lost to Carolina on March 31, stopped
28 shots. Cam Ward made 15 of his 30 saves in the third period for the
Hurricanes.
Because of injuries and a flood of
trade-deadline deals, there were 10 Carolina players active for the home
finale who didn't skate in the Oct. 2 opener. More roster tweaks could
come during the offseason when left wing Ray Whitney becomes an
unrestricted free agent.
They did have Staal and LaRose — and
that was plenty.
They combined for seven points Tuesday
night in a win at Tampa Bay, and then they outdid themselves in this
one.
They got things started early in the
second period when Staal found LaRose, who popped the puck off Halak's
pads, and Staal swooped in with a backhand at 18:36. Then, they hooked
up again a few minutes later to make it 2-0, with LaRose pushing a
backhander past Halak as he was being dragged down with 15:09 left.
The Hurricanes' duo looked to have
furthered their jump start in their candidacy for spots in next year's
All-Star game, which was awarded to Raleigh earlier Thursday. In fact,
some of the loudest cheers of the night came when a scoreboard video was
shown featuring NHL commissioner Gary Bettman congratulating the
"Caniacs" for helping land the All-Star game.
Notes
The Hurricanes recalled
defensemen Casey Borer and Tim Conboy from Albany of the AHL. Borer made
his first NHL appearance since he broke a vertebra in his neck in the
River Rats' bus crash in February 2009. … Montreal D Jaroslav Spacek
(flu) was back on the ice after missing three games.