Staal, Hurricanes snap Montreal streak

MONTREAL -- Jaroslav Spacek let his emotions show in his first game back in Montreal.

Spacek scored and celebrated with an Alex Ovechkin-like leap into the glass as Carolina Hurricanes snapped the Canadiens' four-game winning streak with a 5-3 victory Monday.

"I'm not like Mike Cammalleri, he scores often," Spacek said of his former Canadiens teammate who now is with the Calgary Flames. "I don't, so I have to celebrate a little bit. Especially here. I'm so happy."

Spacek was traded to the Hurricanes on Dec. 9 for defenseman Tomas Kaberle.

Carolina pulled even early in the third when Captain Eric Staal beat out Kaberle and squeaked one through Carey Price's pads short-handed.

The Hurricanes regained the lead for good at 8 minutes, 50 seconds of the third when Jamie McBain picked up a rebound in the slot for Carolina's second power-play goal of the night.

The comeback gave Carolina's Kirk Muller a victory in his first game coaching against the Canadiens. Muller played in Montreal for four seasons and was an assistant coach there for five.

Staal scored twice for the Hurricanes, who earned at least a point for the fifth straight game (3-0-2). Jiri Tlusty also had a goal.

Tomas Plekanec, Erik Cole and David Desharnais replied for the Canadiens, who lost to Carolina for the first time this season and missed a chance to close the gap on eighth place in the playoffs race to five points with a win.

Cam Ward made 29 saves for his 21st win of the season. Price stopped 30 shots for the Canadiens.

"In the beginning, we were losing these types of games by a goal. Now we're finding ways to get a point, two points," Muller said. "Our leaders are really leading this team right now. I really like the way we're playing right now."

Staal liked seeing his teammate and coach so fired up against their former team.

"They were both pretty pumped, as we all were. That was a big win for us," Staal said. "Spatcho's a great team guy. He's got that personality where he never seems to be in a bad mood. And any time you score against your old team, I'm sure it's a good feeling and it was for him tonight."

After Tlusty opened the scoring early in the first period, Spacek put his former teammates in a 2-0 hole in the second when Jeff Skinner found him back-door on a Carolina power play.

There were "a lot of races that we lost early on," Canadiens coach Randy Cunneyworth said of his team's start, which saw it get outshot 16-6 in the first period. "We have to win those battles, win the races. They seemed to have a lot of jump and we were a little bit flat."

Since taking over in mid-December, Cunneyworth has stressed that players who give the effort will be rewarded with the ice time. Against Carolina, winger Andrei Kostitsyn saw just 4:20 of action - including just one shift in the third period, but center Scott Gomez finished the night with 7:49, both team lows.

"At certain times we were looking at the matchups and trying to get certain people out there. It becomes a little bit of that but also we need some bigger efforts on occasion. Turnovers become paramount," said Cunneyworth.

Plekanec started the Canadiens' comeback at 11:53 of the second when he took advantage of a 2-on-1 with Rene Bourque to put a wrist shot past Ward. It was the center's 10th career goal and 30th point against the Hurricanes in 26 games played.

Cole tied it 2-2 on the power play at 15:57 when he moved in from the boards to the slot for his first goal against his former team.

Desharnais gave the Canadiens their first lead of the night when he took advantage of a sprawled Ward and tucked the puck in to the net late in the period.

"The second period was one of the best periods I've seen us play at home. Then we go out and throw it all away," said a frustrated Lars Eller. "It was like we were a different team in each of the three periods. It was weird. Not good enough."