Canes win a defensive struggle, earn 90th point.

On Monday night, the Canes defeated the host Rangers 2-1 thanks to some outstanding goaltending from Marin Gerber. Gerber stopped 38 of the 39 shots he faced, including 17 shots in the third period alone. His 30th victory is tied for second in the league. Only Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff and Dallas'Marty Turco, (each with 31) have more wins. Marty Brodeur of the Devils also has 30.

On the other side of the ice, Henrik Lundqvist, who won gold for Sweden, only faced 19 shots. In the third period, Carolina didn't register a single shot. In fact, the last Carolina shot I can see was taken at the 10:59 mark of the second.

K-Ad and Viva scored for Carolina. It was Adams' 12th and Williams' 20th. Steve Rucchin got the lone Blueshirts goal, his 12th.

Both teams played really well defensively, as the low score suggests.

It was, I must admit, mildly disappointing that neither Eric Staal nor Jaro Jagr had a point tonight.

Apparently, Colesy is in good spirits and was watching the game from home. In typical Erik Cole fashion, he even called the TV booth to give them a little insight on a call they missed.

The win was Carolina's 43rd of the season, tying a franchise record.

Tampa was busy losing to Ottawa which means that the Canes widened their Southeast Division lead to 22 points, but were unable to expand their Eastern Conference three point lead over Ottawa.

Don't tell anyone, but the Canes are on a five game winning streak.

Up next: a Wednesday night bash with the Broadstreet Bullies. This will be the last meeting of the regular season for the two teams. Carolina is 2-1 against Philly in this season's series.