MONTREAL -- The Carolina Hurricanes are one of the youngest teams in the NHL this season but it was a wily veteran who helped them continue their recent hot stretch.

Lee Stempniak, 34, scored a pair to lift the Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night at the Bell Centre. The Hurricanes, whose roster's average age is 25.6 years old, earned points in nine straight.

"I think we're still a confident group and think we can get in the playoffs," Stempniak said. "We're getting better as the season goes on, which is obviously a good thing with a young team. The young guys are making strides and playing big roles. They're an important part of the team and they're getting better and better as the season goes on."

The Hurricanes (32-27-13), who also got goals from Elias Lindholm and Jeff Skinner, sit five points back of the Boston Bruins for the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. Carolina holds two games in hand on Boston, with the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning ahead of them in the playoff chase.

"We're not giving up much, we're getting good goaltending, and our special teams have been exceptional the last four or five games, especially," Stempniak said. "That makes a big difference."

Eddie Lack, facing the Canadiens for the first time in his career, made 21 saves for his team, which won at the Bell Centre for the first time since Feb. 13, 2012.

"We didn't execute like we wanted to," Montreal defenseman Jamie Benn said. "Our first period was pretty good and then we kind of just got complacent and sloppy."

Alex Galchenyuk scored for Montreal.

Carey Price stopped 19 shots for Montreal (41-24-9), which dropped its second straight.

"Our focus wasn't there and we weren't on point," Canadiens coach Claude Julien said. "They showed why they've been doing so well lately. They won more battles than us, we didn't win enough faceoffs and we were chasing the puck. Tonight definitely wasn't acceptable for our whole group."

Galchenyuk had a chance to snap a nine-game goal-less drought early on when he had a wide-open net on the rebound of a Jeff Petry shot but Hurricanes center Derek Ryan slid just in time to keep the puck out of his net.

He made the most of another chance a few minutes later on a 2-on-1 with Andrew Shaw, taking a cross-ice feed and roofing it stick side on Lack at 6:46 of the first period.

The Hurricanes tied it late in the frame on the power play. Lindholm extended his point streak to nine games when Teuvo Teravainen found him at the side of the net for an easy tap-in.

Shots were few and far between for the first half of the second period, with both sides sitting on a shot each through the first seven and a half minutes. The visitors started to put more pucks on the net in the latter half and, with 39 seconds remaining, Stempniak floated a backhander from the slot into the back of the net.

Stempniak notched his second of the night 5:11 into the third period. Skinner took advantage of a sliding Brandon Davidson to send a tape-to-tape feed over to the veteran winger for the re-direct into the net.

"There wasn't much going on offensively for us in the second," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. "I thought we struggled to move the puck at times, and obviously, that's a big goal.

The Canadiens, known for their third-period comebacks, couldn't generate much, tossing just six pucks on net in the final frame.

"I think we did, too (expect to come back)," Benn said. "It's just one of those things where it wasn't our night. We didn't execute like we wanted to, and it showed."

Skinner scored for the fourth straight game with an empty-net goal.

NOTES: Montreal LW Andreas Martinsen dressed for the first time in six games while D Brandon Davidson drew back in after two games as a healthy scratch. ... C Steve Ott, LW Dwight King and D Nathan Beaulieu were scratched for the Canadiens. ... Hurricanes LW Valentin Zykov and C Jay McClement missed their seventh and fifth game, respectively, with injury while D Matt Tennyson was a healthy scratch.