The Montreal Canadiens will look to extend their winning streak to five games when they visit the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday in Raleigh, N.C.

The Canadiens (41-21-10, 92 points) are coming off a 4-1 victory against the Nashville Predators on Saturday to improve to 8-3-0 in their past 11 games.

Ivan Demidov opened the scoring in the first period, and fellow rookie Oliver Kapanen joined Cole Caufield and Alex Newhook in tallying in the second to break the contest open.

Getting offense from others beyond the line of Caufield (team-leading 45 goals), captain Nick Suzuki (team-leading 64 assists and 88 points) and Juraj Slafkovsky is a boost for a Montreal squad that has leaned heavily on its top trio.

“Winning teams, you need some scoring aside from your first line,” Newhook said. “I think we know we’re capable of providing a pretty solid secondary scoring second line there, and I think we hold ourselves to that standard as well. Nice to see some results tonight but got to keep moving forward here.”

Newhook’s goal was his second in the past four games.

Demidov and Kapanen have each scored twice in the past three contests, with their other goals coming in the Canadiens’ 5-2 win against the Hurricanes on Tuesday in Montreal. The Canadiens trailed 2-0 by the seven-minute mark of that game before scoring five unanswered goals.

“We talked about having a good start (against Nashville) and not really worrying about the game as much as worry about the first five, six minutes of the game,” said goalie Jacob Fowler, who is expected to give way to Jakub Dobes on Sunday. “I loved our start. I thought it carried us through the whole night.”

The Hurricanes (46-20-6, 98 points), meanwhile, will look to avenge Tuesday’s loss, their lone setback over their past five games (4-1-0).

Carolina bounced back from that defeat with a 5-2 victory against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

Trailing 1-0 after the first period, the Hurricanes scored five unanswered goals before the Devils added another late score.

“Really good 60 minutes, honestly,” goaltender Brandon Bussi said. “I think when we’re playing that tight in the neutral zone, in the offensive zone, just staying on them, making it hard for them to have time and space, we have a lot of success. It was great to kind of see that for the majority of the game.”

They’ve also had a lot of success on the power play of late. They tallied on their lone man advantage against New Jersey, making it five straight games with at least one power-play goal. They’re 7-for-15 over that stretch, a 46.7 percent success rate.

“You do want to have a plan when you get out there, but at the same time, you’re going to see different scenarios all the time, and it’s about being creative,” forward Nikolaj Ehlers said. “When you get the puck to the net, create some chaos, get the rebound, that’s when they’re out of place. It’s been going pretty well for our power play.”

Ehlers delivered the power-play tally to reach 60 points on the season for the fifth time in his NHL career.

–Field Level Media

The Columbus Blue Jackets will try to cool off David Pastrnak when they host the Boston Bruins on Sunday.

Pastrnak had two assists in the Bruins’ 6-3 win against the visiting Minnesota Wild on Saturday, extending his point streak to 12 games. The forward has 20 points (seven goals, 13 assists) during the NHL’s longest active streak.

The Bruins (41-24-8, 90 points) are 4-1-0 in their past five games and are three points ahead of Columbus for the first wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

“Hopefully, we can use that momentum into (Sunday’s game),” said defenseman Andrew Peeke, a former member of the Blue Jackets. “They’re right in the race, too. It’s a big matchup for both teams, and it’s exciting. That’s what makes this part of the year fun — being in that hunt. Every game feels like a playoff game, and that’s really exciting.”

The Blue Jackets (38-24-11, 87 points) have lost three of their past four games following a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the visiting San Jose Sharks on Saturday.

Pavel Zacha and Elias Lindholm each scored two goals for Boston against the Wild. Viktor Arvidsson had a goal and an assist. Casey Mittelstadt notched three assists and Jeremy Swayman made 31 saves.

“It was a complete 60-minute effort,” coach Marco Sturm said. “Every line brought something to the table — could be a fight, could be a goal, whatever it is. Sway in net, outstanding again. That’s who we are, and that’s what I like the most.”

Zacha has six goals and three assists in his past six games.

Igor Chernyshov scored his second goal of the game with 1:25 left in the third period and the San Jose Sharks rallied to defeat the Blue Jackets Saturday.

Defenseman Denton Mateychuk and Cole Sillinger scored and Elvis Merzlikins made 33 saves for Columbus.

“We just didn’t have our legs,” Blue Jackets coach Rick Bowness said. “What these guys have to learn is when you don’t have your legs, you try to simplify the game a little bit. And even though we didn’t have our legs, we’re still trying to make plays that just weren’t there.”

Columbus took a 2-1 lead into the third period but could not hold it.

“They’re (San Jose) fighting for their lives too, just as we are, so they were the better team tonight,” Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson said. “They were on top of us. We didn’t really get many opportunities to be on the offensive side of those physical altercations.”

Columbus forward Dmitri Voronkov left the game early in the second period with an upper-body injury after blocking a shot. Bowness said he will not play Sunday.

Joonas Korpisalo is 1-2-0 with a 4.19 goals-against average and .872 save percentage in his career against Columbus. Jet Greaves, the probable starter for the Blue Jackets, has never faced the Bruins.

The Bruins won the teams’ first meeting 4-2 on Feb. 26 as Arvidsson scored twice and Korpisalo made 36 saves. The teams play again on April 12.

–Field Level Media

Charle-Edouard D’Astous has a strong idea of what he and his Tampa Bay Lightning teammates need the rest of the season.

The defenseman said using emotion and playing with more physicality are the answers for the Lightning, who will conclude a back-to-back set on Sunday with a game against the visiting Nashville Predators.

Tampa Bay (45-21-6, 96 points) overcame two quick goals to the surging Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon in a 4-2 victory.

The win, however, largely was due to the play of D’Astous and Emil Lilleberg, depth players on an injury-ravaged defensive corps.

“Just play with emotion, be physical. I think when we do those things (that) it’s going our way and like we showed tonight,” said D’Astous, who collected one goal and one assist on Saturday. He has two and five, respectively, in his past eight outings.

Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel scored his 34th goal of the season, one off matching his career-high mark he set in 2024-25.

Lilleberg provided the game-winning goal on a four-man rush for the Lightning, who are 5-0-2 in their last seven games and are in second place in the Atlantic Division.

It was Lilleberg’s first goal since Nov. 15 and third overall to help Tampa Bay improve to 12-1-1 in the front end of back-to-backs.

However, the Lightning bring a 6-5-2 mark in the second half of that scenario into Sunday’s game with the Predators (34-30-9, 77 points), who hold the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.

At home Saturday night against the Montreal Canadiens, Nashville succumbed to a quick attack by the visitors in a 4-1 loss.

“They outplayed us tonight,” center Ryan O’Reilly said after his team’s second loss following five straight victories. “Against their top line, we lost that matchup. We didn’t do enough against them defensively. … It’s disappointing.

“I want to shake this one off and get on to the next. It’s kind of nice it’s back-to-back. We have to shift the focus right now and start preparing for the Lightning. It’s going to be a very tough test for us.”

Since Dec. 9, the Predators are 24-16-5 and are in the postseason hunt.

Of course, any matchup between Tampa Bay and Nashville eventually leads to future Hall of Famer Steven Stamkos.

During a spectacular 16-year career with the Lightning, the 36-year-old Stamkos produced 555 goals and 582 assists for a franchise-record 1,137 points — 22 more than Nikita Kucherov, who was ill and missed Saturday’s win.

In his lone game in Tampa as a visitor on Oct. 28, 2024, Stamkos had two assists in the Predators’ 3-2 overtime loss.

The only assist on the winning marker went to Jake Guentzel, whom the Lightning acquired for their top forward line to replace Stamkos.

That move occurred after Tampa Bay declined to sign its captain, who won two Stanley Cups and two Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophies in 16 seasons.

After a 27-goal first campaign in Nashville, Stamkos has 36 tallies in 73 games.

–Field Level Media