Alex Galchenyuk scored his first career hat trick to lead the Canadiens to a 4-1 victory over the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, extending Montreal's winning streak to three games.
Brandon Prust also scored for the Canadiens (20-10-2), while Carey Price stopped 25 shots.
Victor Rask was the lone goal scorer for Carolina (8-19-3), which stretched its losing skid to a miserable six games. Cam Ward made 25 saves in defeat.
The Hurricanes have now lost six games in a row, while scoring only one goal in each of those losses.
After losing three consecutive games on the road, the Habs have answered back with a three-game winning streak on their current home stand.
Montreal scored the eventual game-winner at 8:33 of the second period on a highlight-reel goal that implicated four players. Galchenyuk - for his first of the night - capped off a beautiful tic-tac-toe pass from Max Pacioretty on a sequence initiated by Brendan Gallagher and Andrei Markov. Ward was far from his crease when the puck found the back of the net.
