Kotkaniemi, Hurricanes deny Canadiens first win, remain undefeated

MONTREAL --Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored in his first game against his former team, helping the Carolina Hurricanes keep the Montreal Canadiens winless with a 4-1 victory at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Sebastian Aho had two goals and an assist, Andrei Svechnikov scored for a third straight game, and Frederik Andersen made 27 saves for Carolina (3-0-0).
Kotkaniemi, who was booed every time he touched the puck, got his first point in three games for the Hurricanes.
"It felt really good," Kotkaniemi said. "It was a big relief after those first two games. But it was a great feeling to get it over here too."
It was Kotkaniemi's first time facing the Canadiens since they announced Sept. 4 that they would not match the one-year, $6,100,015 offer sheet the Hurricanes tendered to the restricted free agent forward. The 21-year-old played three seasons for Montreal, which selected him No. 3 in the 2018 NHL Draft.
"That's tough for anybody new, whether you're a young kid or not, you don't want to hear that," Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "But I think he expected that kind of reaction, it's just the way it is. So he answered that the best way he could."

Tyler Toffoli scored the Canadiens' first power-play goal of the season, and Jake Allen made 29 saves for Montreal (0-5-0), which tied its longest season-opening losing streak in 83 years.
"It's tough right now," said Canadiens center Nick Suzuki, who had an assist for his first point of the season. "It's just the confidence for our group just seems to be low. There's plays that we make all the time and we're not executing them. It's definitely a tough patch. … Good teams find a way to get out of it, and we need to really bounce back."
Montreal, which reached the Stanley Cup Final last season, has been outscored 19-4 during the streak. The Canadiens also lost their first five games in 1995-96, and their longest losing streak to start a season is seven games in 1938-39.
Kotkaniemi deflected Brady Skjei's point shot to give the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead at 9:23 of the third period.
"He goes there every shift and the fans boo him," Svechnikov said. "It was very exciting to see him score that goal and it's going to give him [a lot of] confidence, and especially all the guys were excited for him too."

Teuvo Teravainen got his second assist when Aho scored his second of the game into an empty net for the 4-1 final with 39 seconds left.
Aho put Carolina up 1-0 with a power-play goal 23 seconds into the second period. Aho dragged his left knee along the ice to get down low and score on a back-door one-timer off a cross-ice pass from Teravainen.
Svechnikov made it 2-0 at 2:12 with his fourth goal in three games. He took a cross-ice pass from Martin Necas down low on the right side, stepped up toward the net and scored on a wrist shot over Allen's glove.
Toffoli pulled the Canadiens within 2-1 at 17:57 when he scored on Montreal's 18th power play of the season and fifth of the game.
A power-play goal by Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher at 5:33 of the first was overturned after the Hurricanes challenged for goaltender interference.
"I think the score for me doesn't reflect the game as much," Montreal coach Dominique Ducharme said. "I thought it was a competitive game, a hard-fought game. But we made a couple of mistakes, and they made us pay for those."
NOTES: Svechnikov became the fourth NHL player in the past 35 years to have consecutive season-opening goal streaks of at least three games (Filip Forsberg of the Nashville Predators, 2019-20 and 2020-21; Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, 2018-19 and 2019-20; Michel Goulet of the Quebec Nordiques, 1986-87 and 1987-88). … The line of Aho, Teravainen and Kotkaniemi combined for six points (three goals, three assists). … Vincent Trocheck had two assists for Carolina. … Prior to Toffoli's goal, the Hurricanes were 11-for-11 on the penalty kill this season. … The Canadiens were 1-for-6 on the power play and are 1-for-19 for the season. They have allowed eight power-play goals on 18 opportunities.

NHL Video - Title : Video: Aho, Kotkaniemi lead Hurricanes past Canadiens, 4-1 - Url: https://www.nhl.com/video/c-9232218