Canadiens' Nick Suzuki, Brendan Gallagher and HC Martin St. Louis make feelings known after clinching dramatic playoff berth

The Montreal Canadiens clinched a dramatic playoff berth on Wednesday night, defeating the Carolina Hurricanes 4-2. The win sealed the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference for the Canadiens, who finished the regular season with a 40-31-11 record. They will face the Washington Capitals in the first round.

The win caps off a rollercoaster season for the Canadiens, who climbed from 31st place on Dec. 1 to clinch a playoff spot. Nick Suzuki reflected on the journey, saying:

“To me it means a lot. Since we started this rebuild, we’ve had some hard days, and for our group to come together like this this season and put together this effort to make the playoffs when a lot of people doubted us.”

Forward Brendan Gallagher credited head coach Martin St. Louis for the turnaround, saying:

“I mean feels like forever ago. But what I will say is, as a group, our belief starts with Marty. This doesn't happen without his belief. It's amazing how he gets guys to buy into his message.”

St. Louis said he was feeling stressed leading up to the do-or-die game but said he had to push those feelings aside once the game started, noting:

“We had a great conversation yesterday with the group, and I made them understand that yes, I was stressed too, but you got to let those feelings go when that game starts -you just got to play the game."

Kaiden Guhle scored two goals for the Canadiens in the win while Nick Suzuki and Jake Evans added one each. Sam Montembeault made 28 saves. The Hurricanes got goals from Taylor Hall and Tyson Jost while Pyotr Kochetkov made 16 saves.

Recap: Canadiens 4-2 win against Hurricanes

Kaiden Guhle opened the scoring for Montreal within four minutes into the first period after taking a slick backhand feed from Juraj Slafkovsky. Carolina responded at 9:56 when Taylor Hall pounced on a rebound to even the score at 1-1.

The Canadiens regained the lead late in the second. Nick Suzuki corralled a pass from Alexandre Carrier and wired a wrist shot to put Montreal up 2-1. Guhle struck again just over two minutes later, stepping into a pass from Cole Caufield at the point to make it 3-1.

Tyson Jost then scored on a loose puck that had slipped behind Samuel Montembeault to cut the lead 3-2. But Jake Evans finished with a empty-net goal for a final 4-2 victory for Montreal.