Kaiden Guhle scored twice for the Montreal Canadiens, who clinched the final berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs with a 4-2 win against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.
Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist and Sam Montembeault made 27 saves for the Canadiens (40-31-11, 91 points), who claimed the second Eastern Conference wild card and will face the Washington Capitals in the first round of the postseason.
Jake Evans capped the victory with an empty-net goal.
Taylor Hall and Tyson Jost scored for the Hurricanes (47-29-5, 99 points), who rested several mainstays for the game and are 1-5-1 in their past seven entering their regular-season finale at Ottawa on Thursday. Pyotr Kochetkov made 16 saves.
Suzuki and Guhle connected less than three minutes apart late in the second period to put Montreal ahead by two.
Suzuki made it 2-1 at 16:22. Alexandre Carrier spotted the Canadiens captain alone in the left circle, where he wired a shot inside the near post.
At 18:48 of the middle frame, Guhle beat a screened Kochetkov on the blocker side.
Guhle gave Montreal a 1-0 lead at 3:50 of the first period. Juraj Slafkovsky curled back from the left wall to the point before sending a backhand to Guhle at the opposite half-wall. The defenseman took it inside the right circle and snapped a shot that beat Kochetkov to the far side.
Hall tied it 1-1 at 9:56 of the first. He took a pass along the end boards and sent it to Sean Walker, who went around Canadiens forward Josh Anderson and moved behind the net. His pass to the front hit the net. Hall collected the puck and spun around in the right circle before firing a snap shot over Montembeault.
The Hurricanes pushed in the second period, building up a 6-0 shot advantage through the first four minutes that increased to a 12-2 edge with under nine minutes remaining in the frame, but they couldn’t break through.
Jost pulled Carolina within 3-2 at 14:10 of the third period. Bradly Nadeau deflected Dmitry Orlov’s point shot, sending it trickling through Montembeault, and Jost swept in the loose puck.
Evans made it 4-2 at 18:05 of the final frame.
