Antti Raanta made 26 saves, Teuvo Teravainen scored two goals and the Carolina Hurricanes excelled on special teams in a 4-0 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night in Raleigh, N.C.
The Hurricanes scored three times on power plays and another time short-handed in their first game in nearly two weeks.
Raanta, usually the backup in his first season with the Hurricanes, had his first shutout since Feb. 4, 2020.
The Hurricanes, who won for the seventh time in their last eight games, had seven skaters back since clearing COVID protocol.
Montreal is 1-7-2 in its last 10 games. Sam Montembeault stopped 32 shots.
Niederreiter’s power-play goal opened the scoring shortly after the midway mark of the first period. Then, Teravainen converted on a short-handed breakaway, receiving a pass from Aho.
The Hurricanes hadn’t played since Dec. 18, with four games since then called off. They had five games in December scrapped.
The Canadiens were in their second game since four games had been postponed, falling 5-4 in overtime Tuesday night at Tampa Bay.
Montreal’s COVID issues
Montreal has 13 players in COVID protocol after adding defencemen Louie Belpedio and Gianni Fairbrother prior to the game.
It was the NHL debut for Montreal left winger Brandon Baddock.
Goalie Frederik Andersen came out of Hurricanes protocol and was the backup. That left only defenceman Brendan Smith in the protocol among Carolina players.
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