The Carolina Hurricanes took care of business, defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Thursday night at PNC Arena.

Frederik Andersen also made his return to the lineup for the first time since Nov. 2. The Danish netminder had been on the shelf for a little over four months after a blood-clotting issue was discovered.

He made 23 saves in the win.

It was also a big night for Brady Skjei who finished the game with two goals.

The Canes played without Michael Bunting who was held out of the game for trade-related reasons.

Here's how the night went.

Period 1

The Hurricanes controlled the pace of play early, stacking up tons of zone time, but after seven or so minutes, they only had a single shot to show for it. The rest of their chances either went high, wide or were blocked.

And of course, the Canes gave up the first goal after such a strong start as Joshua Roy let a wrister go from high in the zone and it deflected off of Jalen Chatfield and in past Andersen.

Overall, the game was quite loose and sloppy, which perhaps makes sense for a Carolina team that hadn't played for four days.

But the Canes made the most of the chaos and Brady Skjei found the equalizer with a nice individual effort, driving the net and throwing a backhander past Sam Montembault.

Period 2

The Canes started to tighten up a bit around their own net, but they were still getting skated around by Montreal's quick youngsters leading to some long shifts in the defensive end.

At one point, Skjei and Brett Pesce had a shift that was over three minutes long.

The Canes also continued to stay perfect on the penalty kill, but didn't have much success on the power play.

However, with less than 30 seconds to go in the period, Stefan Noesen did what he does best and cleaned up a loose rebound at the net front to put his team ahead.

Period 3

Andersen had a bit of work in the first two periods, but never looked quite comfortable, however he was rock solid to start the third period.

A glove save on Josh Anderson streaking in down the wing and then two toe saves back-to-back on Brendan Gallagher.

Montreal also thought they had found an equalizer, but unfortunately for them, a Canadiens skater ran Andersen over to give them the opportunity for the goal.

The Canes then went to work on their PK putting together multiple grade-A chances.

The kill went a perfect 5-for-5 on the night, but in turn the power play went 0-for-4.

Despite taking a quick penalty to end another one of their power play opportunities, the Canes did strike at 4v4 though as Pesce sprung Skjei for a breakaway which the smooth blueliner did not squander.

Andrei Svechnikov would put the game away with an empty-net goal.