Hurricanes shut out Canadiens, maintain lead in Metropolitan

MONTREAL-- Antti Raanta made 14 saves in his return for the Carolina Hurricanes, who maintained their lead in the Metropolitan Division with a 3-0 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Raanta has four shutouts this season, which is tied for fourth in the NHL. He was playing his first game since March 7 because of a lower-body injury.
"I missed pretty much three weeks, and you're always eager to get back and you try to feel as good as possible in the practice and try to do the right things, but it's always the game that tells you where you're at," Raanta said. "I'm not saying that it was a perfect 60 minutes for me, like there were a few moments where I lost the puck a little bit, but overall pretty good.
"Obviously, I made the saves when I needed to and the guys played really well in front of me, so that obviously helped."
Raanta is 14-0-2 in his past 18 games for Carolina.
"He's been good for us all year, and I think every time he's injured he doesn't complain, he just comes back and kind of gives us new life when we need it," Hurricanes forward Paul Stastny said.
Stastny had a goal and an assist for Carolina (48-18-9), which was 0-2-1 in its previous three games.
The Hurricanes remained one point ahead of the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan. The Devils won 6-3 at the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.
"I thought that was about as dominant as you can play a game," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I mean we were in their end the whole game, so if you're doing that -- their goalie made some good saves on some tips and some things. We didn't create a lot off the rush, but we didn't need to. That's how you have to play it.
"When you get a lead make sure you don't give them rush opportunities and dominate the game in their end. I mean, that's kind of how you want to do it."

Sam Montembeault made 47 saves for Montreal (30-41-6), which has lost three straight.
"You could see that they're a team getting ready to play in the [Stanley Cup Playoffs]," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. "We weren't there tonight."

Brady Skjei gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 6:00 of the first period. He scored with a wrist shot through traffic from the point after he whiffed on his initial attempt.
Stastny made it 2-0 at 10:51 of the second period when he deflected Brent Burns' point shot blocker side on Montembeault.
"He never curls the puck, it's always on his stick, off his stick," Stastny said. "When that happens you can kind of cross the goalie's ice and try to tip it on the move. Sometimes you miss them and you look dumb, but when you do tip them it makes a big difference. They're tough for the goalie to stop."
Sebastian Aho extended the lead to 3-0 at 16:27 with a power-play goal. He scored glove side off a pass from Stefan Noesen during another delayed penalty against Montreal.
"They're a well-oiled team," Montembeault said. "There was no room on the ice. At times it felt like there were six of them."
NOTES: The Hurricanes are 8-0-1 in their past nine games against the Canadiens. … Canadiens defenseman David Savard will be out for the rest of the season because of a right knee injury. … Hurricanes forward Teuvo Teravainen missed his second straight game because of an illness. … Skjei's goal was the 52nd scored by a Hurricanes defenseman this season, the most in Carolina/Hartford Whalers history. … Raanta and Pyotr Kochetkov (four) are the first goalies in Hurricanes/Whalers history to each have at least four shutouts in the same season. They are also the first tandem to do it in the NHL since 2018-19, when Jaroslav Halak (five shutouts) and Tuukka Rask (four) did it with the Boston Bruins, and Robin Lehner (six) and Thomas Greiss (five) did it with the New York Islanders.