{"id":491406,"date":"2026-05-29T22:51:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T02:51:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=491406"},"modified":"2026-05-29T22:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T02:58:16","slug":"3-reasons-hurricanes-habs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/05\/29\/3-reasons-hurricanes-habs\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Reasons the Carolina Hurricanes Montreal Canadiens Series Ended After 5 Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Hurricanes Montreal Canadiens series is over, and the Hurricanes are heading to the Stanley Cup Final. Both Logan Stankoven<\/a> and Taylor Hall<\/a> generated a goal and two assists in a 6-1 victory<\/a> for the Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals.<\/p>\n

The victory helped the Hurricanes win the series, four games to one. Frederik Andersen<\/a> also stopped 23 shots for Carolina, which advances to its first final since winning the Cup in 2006. Carolina will take on the Vegas Golden Knights, with both teams seeking their second Stanley Cup in their team’s respective history.<\/p>\n

Jakub Dobes<\/a> recorded 23 saves for Montreal, which saw its season come to an end in the Eastern Conference Finals. Cole Caufield<\/a> spoiled the shutout bid with a power-play goal for the Habs. Montreal was looking for its first title since winning the Stanley Cup Final in 1993.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at the main reasons the Carolina Hurricanes<\/a> Montreal Canadiens<\/a> series ended after five games.<\/p>\n

Carolina Hurricanes Montreal Canadiens Series Recap<\/h2>\n

One, Two Freddie’s Gonna Stop You<\/h3>\n

Carolina’s Danish netminder hadn’t gotten that many shots thrown his way this series. Montreal had gotten by with winning crucial games with a limited number of shots. The Habs were able to solve Andersen after the first game, but they weren’t able to sustain that.<\/p>\n

Goaltending had been a sore spot for the Canes in previous disappointing runs. However, the veteran goalie seems like a brand-new man in this run to the Stanley Cup Final. Andersen hasn’t seen that much work, but he also frustrated the Ottawa Senators <\/a>and Philadelphia Flyers<\/a> in the previous two rounds.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes do a good job at limiting the number of shots on goal. However, Andersen has also be equal to the ones that do get through. Andersen has been seeing the puck well all postseason and Vegas will have to get the most from its talented offence. The veteran netminder only allowed one goal in the final two games of the series for the Canes.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

\u00a0(Credit Image: \u00a9 Alex Cave\/ZUMA Press Wire)<\/span><\/p>\n

Being Relentless<\/h3>\n

Carolina loves to be relentless and keep up the pressure on teams. Montreal struggled all series with zone entries and having sustained time in the offensive zone. Life is difficult enough for any team, but the Canadiens really couldn’t rack up that time in the Hurricanes’ zone.<\/p>\n

Montreal is a young team, and this is the first time it has gone this far with this core group. The Habs did get to the Cup Final in the COVID-shortened season of 2021. However, that was a much different club then what head coach Martin St. Louis<\/a> has on the ice.<\/p>\n

Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour<\/a> relies on his group to put pressure on opposing teams and cause chaos. That style and being very possession-heavy seemingly overwhelmed Montreal, which has plenty of talented but younger players.<\/p>\n

A Chip on Their Shoulder<\/h3>\n

After Game 1, the same questions for the Hurricanes were being asked like they’ve been the last three seasons. It seemed like Carolina just couldn’t get over the hump and into the Stanley Cup Final.<\/p>\n

Prior to Game 2, Carolina was 1-17 in the Eastern Final since hoisting the vaunted silver chalice in 2006. The Canes also had a horrific -42 goal difference and .854 save percentage. It looked like history was going to repeat itself after Montreal’s impressive Game 1 victory.<\/p>\n

However, a pair of overtime wins<\/a> woke Carolina up and it seemed that Montreal missed its best shot to put the East’s top seed on upset alert. The Hurricanes absolutely dominated the last two games of the series en route to getting to the franchise’s third Stanley Cup Final in the team history.<\/p>\n

Main photo by: James Guillory-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Carolina Hurricanes Montreal Canadiens series is over, and the Hurricanes are heading to the Stanley Cup Final. Both Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall generated a goal and two assists in a 6-1 victory for the Hurricanes in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The victory helped the Hurricanes win the series, four games […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2352,"featured_media":491407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2,4547,7,34,4548],"tags":[8285,7297,188,8068,398,8238,2286],"class_list":["post-491406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hurricanes","category-featured","category-hockey","category-canadiens","category-news","category-nhl","tag-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-carolina-hurricanes-analysis","tag-frederik-andersen","tag-jakub-dobes","tag-martin-st-louis","tag-montreal-canadiens-analysis","tag-rod-brindamour"],"modified_by":"Dan Mount, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2352"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491406"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491410,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491406\/revisions\/491410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}