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It was another night of horrors for Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jose Theodore. The Canadiens' number 1 goaltender was blitzed for five goals on only 10 shots before he was lifted for back-up Cristobal Huet 5:23 into the second period of an 8-2 rout by the first-place overall Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night. It was the third time in his last four starts that Theodore was chased from his net, beginning with a 7-3 loss in Carolina on Jan. 23. "I've been through this once before in the minors and the only way I know to get out of it by working harder," said Theodore. Head coach Bob Gainey admitted that Theodore "took away our chance to stay in the game" by allowing two weak goals to open the second period, but he won't give up yet on trying to get his No. 1 goaltender back to his old form. Theodore has been struggling since the start of the season. The 8-2 result was the same score Carolina ran up in Montreal in the series-clinching Game 6 of the 2002 Eastern Conference semifinal, a game in which Cole scored twice on Theodore. "It's a great atmosphere. The fans are always right into it from the start of the game."
The superstitious Cole switched his usual seat with teammate Ray Whitney so he could sit in the same spot he occupied in the visitors' dressing room during the 2002 series. It worked. Cole scores three, Theodore shaky again as Hurricanes beat Canadiens 8-2. As a result, Carolina won 13 games in January, a feat accomplished by only five other teams in the past .Â.Â. Cory Stillman missed a seventh game with a torso injury, while Oleg Tverdovsky and Matt Cullen also sat out for Carolina. Raitis Ivanans, Radek Bonk and Mark Streit were healthy scratches for Montreal. The game Saturday afternoon between the Canadiens and Boston Bruins has been moved an hour earlier than originally scheduled to 12 p.m. ET.
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