Canadiens Lose To Hurricanes, Who Were The Better Team On The Night

After taking a 1-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Final over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night, the Montreal Canadiens were hoping to emulate what the Vegas Golden Knights did on Friday night and take a 2-0 lead on the road. If the Canes appeared rusty in the first period of Game 1, it wasn’t the case in Game 2.

Rod Brind’Amour’s men got out of the gate in a hurry and displayed the full extent of their relentless brand of forecheck, which seemed to take the Canadiens by surprise a bit.

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The first frame was played at high speed; at times, it looked as if the Hurricanes had five Speedy Gonzaleses on the ice. After 20 minutes, Carolina had 14 hits to the Canadiens’ seven, despite having much of the puck possession. The Canes also dominated in the faceoff department, winning 64% of their draws and leading in shots 7-2. Still, the period ended on a 1-1 tie.

There were a couple of cautionary tales on the ice for Juraj Slafkovsky. Early on, he passed the puck right in front of Jakub Dobes’ net, and it was nearly intercepted. Then, in the dying seconds, he made yet another no-look back pass that led to a two-on-one odd-man rush. Luckily for the power forward, there was no damage done, but he must play a smarter game.

For all the Canes’ possession, though, they only manage to score once, and it was on a weak shot that deflected to get past Dobes. The kind of goal a goalie hates because it’s not going in at high speed, but there was nothing he could do. Josh Anderson tied up the score less than 10 minutes later on yet another great Phillip Danault play.

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Referees do not tend to call a lot of penalties in the playoffs. Still, when they do call one, they tend to even things out at the first opportunity they get, which is exactly what happened in the first frame when Jayden Struble was given a roughing penalty for taking down Andrei Svechnikov after the whistle. The Canes player went down easy, but that’s to be expected in the playoffs.

Dobes also got an interference call for interfering with Mark Jankowski as he was going around the net, but the Canes had been pressuring the Habs, and that was just the goalie trying to land a hand. His play around the net in these playoffs has been highly useful for the Habs, but that was his fourth penalty of the postseason. The rookie netminder displayed nerves of steel when a stick got stuck in his skate, and he managed to calmly thread it out, without play being stopped, as if it was just business as usual.