Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky scored three and a half minutes apart in the second period and Jakub Dobes made 41 saves, helping the host Montreal Canadiens rally to a 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.
Caufield scored his team-leading 44th goal of the season and 12th in his last 12 games to forge a 2-2 tie at 5:49 of the second period. Montreal claimed its first lead of the game at 9:19 after defenseman Noah Dobson wired a shot that deflected off both Caufield and Slafkovsky and into the net.
Rookie Oliver Kapanen and Ivan Demidov also scored and Jake Evans converted into the empty net for the Canadiens (39-21-10, 88 points), who overcame an early 2-0 deficit to post their sixth win in their last nine games.
Montreal’s 24th comeback win of the season tied a franchise record, originally set during 1975-76 and matched again in 1992-93.
Carolina’s Nikolaj Ehlers scored a power-play goal and captain Jordan Staal also tallied early in the first period.
Frederik Andersen turned aside 14 shots for the Hurricanes (45-20-6, 96 points), who outshot the Canadiens 16-4 in the first period before seeing their three-game winning streak ended.
Kapanen halved the 2-0 deficit at 12:11 of the first after deflecting defenseman Jayden Struble’s shot from the point past Andersen.
After recording a hat trick in his last game, Caufield leveled the contest at 5:49 of the second period after cleaning up a rebound from a sharp angle.
Demidov converted on a breakaway with 6:07 remaining in the third period before Evans found the empty net with a minute to go.
Ehlers’ shot from the left circle caromed off the stick of Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson and past Dobes to open the scoring 2:36 into the game. Ehlers’ goal was his 22nd of the season and second in as many games.
Carolina’s forecheck forced a turnover at the blue line, allowing Staal to score from in close to double the advantage at 7:09 of the first period.
–Field Level Media
