Carolina @ Montreal preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 31, 2019 ) Montreal 1, Carolina 3

The Carolina Hurricanes haven’t had much success on home ice of late with four straight losses, and hope to change their fortunes when they begin a season-long, six-game road trip Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens. The Hurricanes, who have won four of their last five on the road, rallied to tie the game in the third period Friday before suffering a 3-2 loss versus Colorado to remain two points out of playoff position in the Eastern Conference with three games in hand.

“That’s a tough game for sure, because we played definitely well enough to win,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour told reporters after his team piled up 47 shots. “Gotta turn the page, cause games are coming fast and furious. … We’re going to dwell on the positives and try to clean up the other stuff.” The Hurricanes have won three straight meetings, including a pair this season, and the Canadiens sit nine points out of the second wild-card position in the East after falling to 2-5-2 in their last nine games with a 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday. Montreal scored the first two goals in that contest and took a 2-1 lead into the third period before surrendering four goals in the final 8:54 to drop to 13-16-6 at home this season. “You can’t blow a lead like that,” Canadiens’ leading scorer Tomas Tatar told reporters. “We had 40 great minutes and we were really happy with our hockey game, and then we just dropped it. … We’ve got to look at ourselves in the mirror and we can’t let it happen.”

TIME: 7 p.m. ET. TV: FS Carolinas, CITY, TVA, Sportsnet East

ABOUT THE HURRICANES (35-24-4): All-Star center Sebastian Aho remains hot after extending his point streak to 14 games with a pair of assists Friday and the 22-year-old Fin leads the team with 36 goals and 62 points. Teuvo Teravainen scored both goals against Colorado to boost his season total to 59 points and move into second place on the team ahead of right wing Andrei Svechnikov (58), who saw his 11-game point streak come to an end Friday. With the team’s top two goalies injured, Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 12-of-16 shots in the loss to Dallas on Tuesday and Anton Forsberg made 29 saves Friday.

ABOUT THE CANADIENS (29-28-9): Tatar recorded a goal and four assists in the last five games to boost his team-best total to 58 points - equaling his career high that was set last season in his first year with Montreal. Max Domi has picked it up lately with three goals along with three assists during his four-game point streak and is tied with fellow center Philip Danault for second on the team with 43 points. Carey Price (26 wins, .910 save percentage) is 2-1-1 in his last four outings overall and owns a 15-10-4 record with a .928 SP in 29 career meetings against the Hurricanes after stopping 40-of-43 shots in a 4-3 shootout loss on Oct. 3.

OVERTIME

1. Montreal LW Jonathan Drouin (ankle) missed Thursday’s game and is questionable for the matchup with Carolina.

2. Carolina C Vincent Trocheck has yet to record a point or a shot on net in his first two games since being acquired from Florida.

3. The Canadiens were 2-of-5 on the penalty kill the last two games after going 6-for-6 the previous three contests.

PREDICTION: Hurricanes 4, Canadiens 3