Hurricanes vs. Canadiens: Taylor Hall Scores Twice as Carolina Spoils Montreal's Home Opener

The Bell Centre had been waiting for this one since spring. First regular-season home game since the Carolina Hurricanes ended Montreal's playoff run, 20,962 in the seats, and a chance to make a statement against the champs. Taylor Hall took the air out of it 2:25 in, then came back for more in the third.

Hall scored twice, Sebastian Aho had a goal and two assists, and Carolina beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 on Tuesday night to spoil the Canadiens' home opener. It was a rematch of last spring's Eastern Conference final, a five-game Carolina win that preceded its Stanley Cup triumph over Vegas, according to the AP.

Five Goals Before the 13-Minute Mark

The first period played like a pickup game where nobody bothered with defense. Hall opened the scoring at 2:25, redirecting Jackson Blake's shot after Juraj Slafkovsky coughed up the puck in front of his own net. Fifty-eight seconds later, Zachary Bolduc grabbed a rebound and lifted a backhand into the top corner to tie it. Sixty-four seconds after that, Nick Suzuki snapped a Chris Kreider feed past Brandon Bussi for a 2-1 Montreal lead. Three goals, 2:02 of game time.

At 9:22, Jalen Chatfield fired from the point and the puck ticked off Eric Robinson on its way past Jakub Dobes, tying it 2-2. Then Hall took a hooking minor, and Montreal's power play cashed in at 12:54, with Bolduc scoring again for a 3-2 lead. Five goals, not even 13 minutes, and nobody had bothered to settle in.

Aho knew exactly what Carolina was up against. "Obviously, it was the home opener for them, so they were full of energy and pushed hard early especially," he said. "But we weathered the storm there and kind of took over at the end."

The Turning Point

The Canadiens carried that 3-2 lead into the second period with the crowd behind them. It lasted 3:56. Alexandre Carrier went off for interference at 3:14, and Aho needed only 42 seconds of the power play to slide a shot through Dobes' pads off a Nikolaj Ehlers pass, tying the game 3-3. That was Aho's fourth goal of the season. NHL.com noted it was also career power-play goal No. 77, which lifted him past Jere Lehtinen into eighth among Finland-born players.

Montreal never led again. At 13:24, Mark Jankowski pounced on a Noah Dobson giveaway, cut across the goalmouth and roofed a backhand past Dobes' glove for a 4-3 Carolina lead. Robinson set it up, completing a goal-and-assist night in just 8:03 of ice time.

Coach Rod Brind'Amour was pleased with the first 40 minutes. "I really liked the first two periods," he said. "I thought we were really good, didn't give up much, killed a couple of 5-on-3s."

Hall Closes the Door, Mostly

Hall made it 5-3 at 12:21 of the third, finishing a backhand set up by Jaccob Slavin and Aho for the first two-goal lead of the night. Montreal refused to go quietly. Slafkovsky pounced on a rebound at 16:57 to cut it to 5-4, his first goal of the season, and suddenly Montreal had life. Andrei Svechnikov ended the suspense with an empty-netter with 1:15 left, also his first of the season.

Brind'Amour was less thrilled with the finish. "The third period was probably the one I didn't like the most. We kind of turned pucks over," he said. "We were just not super sharp, but we had enough of a lead that we were able to get her done."

Who Delivered

Taylor Hall: Two goals, a plus-2 and three hits in 13:07, his first two goals of the season. He also served four penalty minutes, so call it a full-service evening.

Sebastian Aho: A goal, two assists and eight faceoff wins in 19:56. Per NHL.com, his four goals through Carolina's first four games have been topped by only five players in franchise history.

Jaccob Slavin: Two assists, a plus-2 and three blocked shots in 21:17.

Zachary Bolduc: Two goals for Montreal, including the power-play strike that briefly had the Canadiens in front.

Lane Hutson: An assist in a staggering 29:21 of ice time.

The goalies: Bussi made 16 saves on 20 shots for the win. Dobes stopped 27 of 32 for Montreal.

Stats That Matter

• 33-20: Carolina's advantage in shots on goal. Montreal's early burst came on limited volume.
• 2:02: The span of the game's first three goals, all in the opening five minutes.
• 15: Combined penalties, eight by Carolina and seven by Montreal.
• 1 for 5 and 1 for 6: The Carolina and Montreal power plays, respectively. Each made its lone conversion count.
• 30-20: Carolina's edge in hits.

What It Means

Carolina is 2-1-1 and 2-0-0 on the road, and has won consecutive games after opening the season 0-1-1 with a 1-0 overtime loss to Florida and a 5-2 loss to Washington. The defending champions look like themselves again. They host Vancouver on Thursday.

Montreal falls to 1-1-1 and has lost two straight. They also played without Ivan Demidov, last season's Calder Trophy runner-up per NHL.com, who is expected to miss two to four weeks with a lower-body injury. Suzuki did not dodge the self-assessment. "I think the power play has got to be better, the penalty kill has got to be better, 5-on-5 we have to be better," he said. The Canadiens host Nashville on Thursday.

Closing Take

Montreal got the Groundhog Day treatment: same opponent, same building energy, same ending as last spring. The Canadiens had the crowd, the early lead and the emotion. Carolina had the structure and the power play when it mattered. Defenseman Mike Matheson preached patience. "I think it's important for us to keep pushing and not get too high or too low," he said. That is the right mindset. It is also exactly what a team says when the champs just walked into its party and left with the cake.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.