Hurricanes shut out Canadiens in Game 4, move 1 win from Stanley Cup Final

MONTREAL -- The Carolina Hurricanes moved within one win of reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006 with a 4-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Final at Bell Centre on Wednesday.

The Hurricanes lead the best-of-7 series 3-1. Game 5 is at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday (8 p.m. ET; HBO MAX, tru TV, TNT, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“I’m definitely excited, for sure, having the success we’re having,” Hurricanes defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere said. “And it’s hard not to look past it but we have to take care of business. It’s a businesslike approach for us to finish this off if we can and the fourth one is the hardest, so just more of the same from us.” 

Frederik Andersen made 18 saves for his third shutout of these Stanley Cup Playoffs, and Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal and Logan Stankoven scored in a span of 2:47 in the first period for Carolina, the No. 1 seed in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference. Nikolaj Ehlers and Gostisbehere each had two assists.

“It feels great, obviously,” Ehlers said. “We played really well tonight but we’ve got to get one more and it’s not going to come easy, you know, they’re a great team. We’ve still got a lot of work to do.”

Jakub Dobes made 40 saves for Montreal, the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Division, which has lost three straight after not losing consecutive games in a pair of seven-game series wins in the first two rounds.

“It wasn’t our best game,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “We lacked execution a lot early, turnovers. It’s not easy to come from behind against them.”

The Hurricanes converted their second power-play opportunity of the game to begin building a 3-0 lead with three quick goals.

“We got some odd-man rushes and were able to score on those, and get pucks to the net quickly off passes,” Ehlers said. 

Aho made it 1-0 on the man-advantage at 14:59. He scored on a one-timer from above the right face-off dot on a pass from Ehlers, completing a play Aho began with a pass back to Gostisbehere at the right point.

Staal scored at 16:07 to make it 2-0. The Carolina captain battled with Josh Anderson in front of the net to get his stick down and deflect K'Andre Miller’s centering pass between Dobes’ pads after the Hurricanes defenseman went wide around Canadiens forward Phillip Danault to set up Staal with a backhand into the goalmouth from the right corner.

Stankoven pushed it to 3-0 at 17:46. He broke down the right side 2-on-1 with Jackson Blake to take a cross-ice pass and score on a shot over Dobes’ outstretched left pad for his team-leading eighth goal in 12 playoff games.

“Whenever you can start out good like that in an opposing building it’s huge,” Stankoven said. “Obviously they’ve got great fans here, they’re very passionate, so it’s nice to come out and have a great start, but going in after the first you can’t be satisfied because there’s still lots of hockey left. But we were able to keep at it the whole time.”

The Canadiens were outshot 19-3 in the third period, prompting the crowd to chant, “Shoot the puck! Shoot the puck!” at one point when they held possession in the offensive zone before Nick Suzuki got their first shot of the period at 17:05.

“It kind of is what it is,” said Suzuki, the Montreal captain. “I mean they have the right to speak how they want and we’d love to have more shots. So we’re kind of in the same boat as them.”

Andrei Svechnikov scored for a second straight game, shooting into an empty net with 1:54 remaining for the 4-0 final.

“I think they’re very skilled and they’re a team that moves the puck very well, and I don’t think they’re going to try and waste shots,” Stankoven said. “I think they do a good job in moving the puck and they’ve got some skilled guys that can really shoot if you give them time and space. And I think that’s what we’ve done -- we haven’t given them a lot of time and space, their top guys, to make plays.” 

NOTES: Andersen, who has eight playoff shutouts, moved ahead of Cam Ward to set a Hurricanes/Hartford Whalers franchise record with his fifth playoff shutout for Carolina. He improved to 11-1 in these playoffs and is the fifth NHL goalie to win each of his first six road games in one playoff year. … It was the Hurricanes’ 64th win in regular season and playoff games this season. The only time Carolina had more was in 2006 when it had a combined total of 68 and won the Stanley Cup. … Carolina is 6-0 on the road in the playoffs.