RALEIGH, N.C. — The Montreal Canadiens and goaltender Jose Theodore owned the third period of the playoffs — until Friday night.
Ron Francis scored his 42nd career playoff goal 3:49 into the final period and Kevin Weekes recorded his second straight shutout as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Canadiens 2-0 to take the opening game of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Erik Cole sealed it with 2:18 left, scoring his third playoff goal.
Montreal outscored Boston 10-2 in the third period of its first-round series, and Theodore had a save percentage of .986. But Francis was able to tip a Niclas Wallin shot past the goalie early in the third, and Weekes made it stand up, stopping 25 shots in just his third postseason start.
Theodore had just made a spectacular diving stick save on rookie Jaroslav Svoboda five seconds before Wallin left his shot fly from 10 feet inside the blue line and Francis deflected it between the legs of Theodore.
Wallin, a healthy scratch in 29 games this season, is playing because defenseman David Tanabe is out with a broken wrist.
Game 2 is Sunday night at Carolina.
The second period was filled with missed scoring chances — mostly by the Hurricanes.
Yanic Perreault hit the crossbar 1:03 into the period, but it was all Carolina after that as the Hurricanes fired 19 shots on Theodore.
The best opportunity came six minutes in when a shot from the left point by Marek Malik bounced off the shoulder of Theodore and rolled behind him. However, Cole fanned on his attempted tip in, and the Montreal goalie was able to recover and keep the puck from going over the line with his blocker.
It didn't take long for the series to heat up between former division rivals.
Less than five minutes in, Carolina's Jeff O'Neill took a five-minute checking-from-behind penalty and a game misconduct when he rammed Montreal defenseman Sheldon Souray from behind along the side boards. Souray fell to the ice in pain and was helped off the ice as Carolina's leading goal scorer during the regular season was done for the night.
The hit left the Canadiens without two of their top defensemen. Patrice Brisebois didn't suit up after suffering a back injury in Game 6 of the Boston series.
But the Canadiens, who had scored six power-play goals in 27 chances against the Bruins, managed just two shots on Weekes over the five-minute span as Carolina's penalty-killers got the record standing-room-only crowd of 18,809 in an uproar with its stellar play.
Souray returned 30 seconds into the second period, but played just one shift after his shoulder injury.
Notes: Carolina's Rod Brind'Amour played in his 100th career playoff game. ... Stephane Robidas, a team-worst minus-25 during the regular season, subbed for the injured Brisebois. ... The hit by O'Neill will automatically be reviewed by NHL officials for a possible suspension. ... Montreal has been outshot in six of its seven playoffs games. ... Carolina LW Sami Kapanen, who had a career-high 27 goals during the regular season, has been shut out so far in the postseason.