Canes win, restore home ice

On Friday night, the Canes won a nail-biter 3-2 in Montréal. With the win, the series is evened at two games apiece and Carolina has restored home ice.

The Canes took the lead early and looked to be off and running. Public enemy #1 Justin "Viva" Williams got a goal at 10:22 of the first, assisted by Staalsy and Dougie. It was Viva's first goal of the playoffs, Staal's fifth assist, and Weight's second.

Barely a minute later, AWard increased the lead to two goals. His tally was assisted by Viva and Cory Stillman. That was the second assist for each guy.

Nobody likes a two goal lead, but the Canes made it stand up through the end of one. In the first 20 minutes, there were no penalties called, and the Habs were outshot 12-6.

As expected, the two goal lead wouldn't hold up. Alexander Perezhogin cut the lead in half at 5:01. From the mid-point on, there were some strange things going on.

At 10:55, CrAdams was sent to the box for tripping, then at 11:45, Bret Hedican was found guilty of a high-sticking double minor. The Habs had 70 seconds of five-on-three. Somehow, they found a way to nearly piss it away. Carolina had two different scoring chances while at a two man disadvantage, including a breakaway by Brindy. "Crystal Ball" Huet made a sensational save on what was tantamount to a penalty shot, then made a dandy save on the rebound attempt. A few seconds later, he was forced to make yet another amazing save. They didn't convert on the five-on-three, but still had nearly three minutes of power play left.
Sheldon Souray got the equalizer just three seconds after the expiration of CrAdams' penalty, but they remained on the power play because Hedican's was a double minor.

That would be all of the official scoring in the period.

At 18:38 of the second, Brindy had what he thought was the go-ahead goal. There was a mad frenzy in front of Huet's crease, and the puck was loose. Brindy kept hacking at it and knocked the puck in. However, the goal was disallowed for contact with the goaltender. There was a slew of red shirts, and only Rod Brind'Amour in white. Contact certainly was made, it looked like the contact was the result of Craig Rivet and Sheldon Souray attempting to remove Brindy from the crease. They both pushed Brindy, who made contact with Huet as the puck crossed the line. The refs have a lot of discretion in that case. They can allow the goal, saying that the contact was incidental; they can wave off the goal without calling an interference penalty; or they can wave the goal and call a penalty. I thought they should have gone with option A, but they went with B. For the record, it was Tim Peel, who made the call from all the way at center ice.

The third was full of tension, and fortunately, the Canes didn't let the controversy get the best of them. They had a good period, and Brindy eventually got the game winner at 5:54.

I could write a lengthy piece about Rod Brind'Amour's play in game four. He did a spectacular job of doing everything right. He created a breakaway situation while down two men. If not for a dazzling save by Huet, he would have put the Canes up 3-1, and taken the slowly shifting momentum away from the Habs. He pitched in defensively on several occasions, perfectly demonstrating why he will win the Selke. He earned third star accolades for his performance, and I can't disagree with giving the first star to Viva, but I think Brindy was the story tonight. And I think he'll be one of the big stories of this series.

Once again, Cam Ward was great. He didn't have to stand on his head as much as he did in game three, but he was pretty great. Again, he did a fantastic job of controlling his rebounds, and was just seeing the puck really well. He lived up to his reputation of being cool and collected. While many players will say that the key to success in the playoffs is to maintain one's heartbeat, to keep it low. All the Canes players say that Cam Ward doesn't have a pulse at all. I don't know where he gets that collectedness, but I see no reason to question it.

For his one goal/one assist night, the public enemy #1 was given the first star, and I can't imagine that went over with the fans in the MolsonBell Center. As I suspected, he was greeted with boos and chants of "Asshole", but was not targeted by any of the Habs players. The players know and respect that Williams didn't intend to injure Koivu. They've also got better things to worry about than trying to knock his head off.

So the series will return to Raleigh on Sunday night, with a special 7:30 puck drop time. Since neither team has won a home game, it kind of makes things interesting.

I have a lot of confidence in my boys, though. With every game, the defense is getting better. Truth be told, it would be impossible for there to not be an improvement over game one, but I seriously have seen improvement in each game. One area that still needs A LOT of improvement though, is clearing the zone on the PK. Carolina can't seem to get the puck out. On the other side, Montréal is doing a textbook job of doing the same. Every chance they get, they clear it all the way out.

Anyway, we've got a brand new series. Best of three. It should be a doozy.