Good news comes in bunches for Canes on Saturday

On Saturday, things went well for the Hurricanes, as they got a bunch of good news. Most importantly, they shut out the Islanders on the Island to finish off the first half of the season. Martin Gerber now has three shutouts this season, matching his career total in that category. Curiously, one of those shutouts was on New Year's Eve 2003-04 against Carolina when he was a Duck.

To make things even sweeter, Tampa was defeated by the hapless Bruins 6-3. Carolina's lead, which was already the biggest of any division leader, is now 13 points. We still have two games in hand on the Bolts. For the moment, Atlanta has leapfrogged Tampa into second place in the Southeast. Carolina's lead over Atlanta is just 12 points, but we have three games in hand on them.

Of the four divisional leaders who played Saturday night, Carolina was the only team that won. In the Northeast, Ottawa lost, but Buffalo couldn't capitalize, as they also lost The margin there is three points. Over in the Northwest, Calgary lost to second-place Vancouver, but still has a four point lead. In the Pacific, the Kings lost while second-place Dallas was idle. That lead is just two points.

There was still more good news. Justice was served when the League decided to suspend Islanders goon Eric Godard for two games for his attack on Justin Williams Friday night.

I had to work late last night, and I still haven't watched the DVR of the game, but it goes pretty much like this:

No scoring in the first period. In the second frame, Carolina scored three goals in a six-and-a-half minute span. At 2:58, Brindy got his 18th goal of the season on a power play goal assisted by Viva. At 7:18, the "short guy" line got an even strength goal with some nifty passing. The Wizard one-timed one past Dubielewicz with assists from Matt Cullen and Chad "Sharpie" LaRose. Then at 9:12, with the Canes on the power play, Cory Stillman netted his 14th of the season on a redirect of an A-Hutch blue line bomb. Second assist to Viva on that one.

Almost the exact same story as Friday night. The Canes were the much better disciplined team, only taking three penalties. They converted two of their seven power play chances while shutting down all three of the Isles chances.

Cory Stillman is absolutely en fuego. He's scored a goal in five straight games, and has points in eleven straight. He and the slumping Eric Staal are both producing more than a point a night. Ray Whitney, Justin Williams and Rod Brind'Amour are all right on the cusp of a point a night.

Next week, the Central division comes calling. We've already handled Chicago and Columbus. The boys will get some serious tests from Detroit on Tuesday (OLN has that one) and from Nashville on Friday. Rounding out the Central division, St. Louis will be in town on Sunday.