MONTREAL — The Canadiens had hope in every game of the Eastern Conference final.
By the end of Monday’s Game 4 at Bell Centre, it was all gone.
Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal and Logan Stankoven scored in a span of 2:47 late in the first period, Frederik Andersen stopped 16 shots for his third shutout of the postseason, and Carolina smothered the Canadiens in a 4-0 win that gives it a commanding 3-1 series lead back to Raleigh.
“I just felt like we just were good from start to finish, and obviously we got the result,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
The onslaught started on the power play.
The teams combined for 14 power plays in the first three games of the series, but there were penalties aplenty in the first period.
After Carolina killed off two Montreal power plays and the Canadiens stopped the Hurricanes on their first, Aho scored his first goal of the series.
Nikolaj Ehlers came off the bench after Taylor Hall exited the penalty box to end a brief 4-on-4 sequence, and Shayne Gostisbehere hit him in stride entering the zone.
Ehlers quickly snapped a pass to Aho in the right circle. Aho one-timed the puck past Jakub Dobes (38 saves) for his fourth goal of the postseason at 14:59 and the Hurricanes’ first power play goal of the series. Carolina has scored first in all four games of the series.
The Hurricanes doubled their lead 68 seconds later.
Carolina cycled in the offensive zone, and Ehlers handed the puck off to defenseman K’Andre Miller at the top of the zone.
Miller carried the puck low to the goal line and backhanded a pass in front of the Montreal net, and Staal — with his stick between the legs of Montreal’s Josh Anderson — redirected it through Dobes’ five-hole for a 2-0 lead at 16:07.
“I think that’s the goal every night, to tire and wear out the opposition,” said Miller, who is leading Carolina in ice time and has eight assists in 12 games. “I think that is the Carolina Hurricanes to a T — that’s what we’re known for, and it’s been like that since I’ve been here. So I’m just trying to help out and be a part of it.”
Carolina’s second line then got in on the fun.
Gostisbehere went down and blocked a Lane Hutson shot from between the hashmarks, and the puck bounced off the Hurricanes defenseman and sent Jackson Blake and Stankoven on a 2-on-1 rush.
Blake waited for Montreal defenseman Jayden Struble to commit to him and then feathered a pass to Stankoven, who punched the puck past a lunging Dobes for his team-leading eighth goal of the postseason at 17:46.
“We had a couple moments in the first period, like (Gostisbehere’s) block and a couple kills there that gave us momentum, and we were able to score a few goals and kind of take over the game,” Aho said.
The Hurricanes didn’t need to do more than that offensively. Carolina dominated the Canadiens for all 60 minutes, and it was particularly gruesome in the third period.
With Montreal needing its best period of the season, the Hurricanes instead shoveled dirt onto the wilting Canadiens. When Habs captain Nick Suzuki snapped a harmless shot at Andersen from the right circle — Montreal’s first shot on goal of the final period — with 2:55 left in the game, the crowd that remained offered mock applause.
The biggest cheers all night were for Dobes, who played brilliantly on his 25th birthday but had no chance of singlehandedly willing his team to a win. The Bell Centre faithful saved their best moment of the game shortly after the Suzuki shot when, with Dobes on the bench for an extra attacker, Ehlers’ shot from distance hit the crossbar, triggering a “Doby! Doby!” mock chant that both honored the team’s goalie and scorned its players.
Andrei Svechnikov delivered the final dagger moments later, scoring into an empty net to send the Hurricanes back to Raleigh with one win needed to reach the Stanley Cup final.
“We’ve done a nice job of not getting ahead of ourselves and just focusing on, ‘OK, we’ve got business to take care of,’” Brind’Amour said. “That’s what we still have to do here.”
Notes: Aho’s 11th career postseason power play goal broke a tie with Eric Staal for the most in franchise history. … Stankoven matched a career high (playoffs or regular season) with seven shots on goal. … Hutson was minus 3. … Sean Walker was plus 3. … Forwards Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Nicolas Deslauriers, defenseman Mike Reilly and goalie Pyotr Kochetkov were healthy scratches for Carolina.
