RALEIGH, N.C. -- The third period hasn't exactly been kind to the Carolina Hurricanes early in the season as one of the youngest teams in the NHL is trying to learn how to win.

The Hurricanes scored a combined eight goals in the third period in their first 14 games. But Carolina scored late in a 1-0 victory over San Jose earlier in the week and then Jeff Skinner, Teuvo Teravainen and Victor Rask got goals less than six minutes apart in the third period Friday night en route to a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.

"When you're creating good habits, good things happen on the ice and I feel like we've done that," said veteran Cam Ward, who stopped 31 shots to improve to 4-1-2 in November. "And we've also learned from previous games this season. It's funny when things don't go well you make it what it is; you can either dwell on it or you can look at it as a way to improve. We now feel more comfortable when we have the lead."

Carolina defenseman Ron Hainsey assisted on the first two Carolina goals with shots from the point as the Hurricanes (6-6-4) won their third straight in a streak that also included a 5-1 rout of Washington.

"You have to have a healthy amount of respect for everybody in the league, but if we're beating good teams, then it has to put us in that category at some point," Carolina coach Bill Peters said. "But we're got some work to do here. We've got to get competitive on a consistent basis and we've got to get it throughout the lineup.”

Meanwhile, Eastern Conference-leading Montreal (13-3-2) is now 0-2-1 in its last three after starting the season 13-1-1.

"I think the effort was there, but you need puck luck and we don't have the puck luck lately," Montreal coach Michel Therrien said. "When you are on the road and give up 18 shots, you usually win those games."

The Hurricanes were coming off a shutout victory over defending Western Conference champion San Jose but managed just eight shots through two periods and fell behind 1-0.

"We weren't playing terrible, but we certainly weren't playing good," Hainsey said. "We just weren't generating much. We played a much better third period and maybe were able to steal one."

"It's not picture-perfect every game, but good teams find ways to win," Jordan Staal added after the Hurricanes managed just a season-low 18 shots. "We got some ugly goals. We just started shooting the puck and we got some bounces and we started creating some momentum."

Skinner scored his team-leading seventh and 150th of his career 3:12 into the third period to tie the score at 1-1, redirecting a shot by Hainsey off his skate from the top of the left circle.

The Hurricanes didn't stop there as Teravainen deflected in his fifth goal of the season past Al Montoya, who was in net instead of Carey Price, who was resting to take on Toronto on Saturday night.

Less than two minutes after Carolina's second goal, Rask gave his club more breathing room with his seventh of the season as Montoya was screened on the play for a 3-1 lead midway through the third.

"We shuffled the deck after two periods and went down to three lines," Peters said. "But the biggest thing between the first 40 minutes and the last 20 minutes were faceoffs. We didn't have the puck at the start of the game."

Andrew Shaw's third goal of the season with 4:31 left made it interesting down the stretch. Jeff Petry added a second-period goal and an assist, and Andrei Markov assisted on both Montreal goals to run his point streak to seven games.

The Canadiens have now scored first in 14 of their 18 games but lost for the first time in regulation after doing so.

NOTES: Montreal second-leading scorer, RW Alexander Radulov, missed his second straight game with an illness. ... Carolina faced its fifth backup goalie in the last six games and fourth in a row. ... The Hurricanes had been called for the second fewest penalties in the league heading into Friday's action. ... Montreal played in just its seventh road game compared to 11 at home. ... Canadiens C Tomas Plekanec played in his 188th straight game. ... Carolina G Cam Ward started his fifth straight game and 10th of the last 11. ... Former Carolina LW Chris Terry was recalled from St. John's this week and recorded an assist in Montreal's 4-3 overtime loss to Florida.