Lee Stempniak scored twice and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 on Thursday night to extend their point streak to nine games and keep their playoff hopes alive.
Elias Lindholm and Jeff Skinner also scored for the Hurricanes, while Eddie Lack stopped 21 shots.
Carolina, undefeated in regulation time in nine straight games (6-0-3), is five points out of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with 10 regular-season games left.
Alex Galchenyuk scored the lone goal for Montreal. Carey Price stopped 19 of 22 shots.
The Hurricanes took a 2-1 lead with 39 seconds remaining in the second period when Stempniak's seemingly harmless backhand shot took a big deflection off Alexei Emelin's skate and skipped past Price.