Canes rip Bolts, weird things happen.

On Saturday night, the Hurricanes hosted the Lightning, who had embarrassed the Canes 5-1 just two nights previous. Fortunately, things worked out for the Canes, as they emerged with a 6-4 victory. Some rather strange things happened along the way. I'll blame "Hallowe'en" for the freakish stuff. I'll get to that later.

The visitors got on the board first at 5:38 of the first. It was their first shot of the game, and Cam Ward got a really clean look at it, but it beat him anyway. Vinny Prospal fired it from near the right point, and with little traffic out front, Ward should have handled it easily. He didn't, and the Bolts had a 1-0 lead. Paul Ranger got the only assist.

About three minutes later, things started to get really crazy. Eric Staal started a scoring binge at 8:23. From the bottom of the right circle, he took a really sharp angle to beat Marc Denis inside the left post. Viva got the lone assist on the power play goal.

Nine seconds later, Kevyn Adams gave the Canes the lead. The Bolts committed a really bad turnover, leading to a great scoring chance by Craig Adams. Denis handled it, but K-Ads stuffed in the rebound. The place went nuts. CrAdams got the only assist.

Just as the PA announcer started to announce the goals, the Canes lit the lamp again. Erik Cole and Ray Whitney executed a picture perfect give-and-go, resulting in the goal at 9:06. Rod Brind'Amour got the secondary assist. Three goals in 43 seconds. That set a new franchise record for the fastest three goal burst, but isn't even close to the NHL record of 20 seconds.

There would be no more scoring in the first. After 20 minutes, things looked really good. They were skating well, they were dominating play, and they had built a 3-1 lead. Actually, the Bolts had only taken two (2) shots on goal in the firs period.

At 5:14 of the second, Eric Staal got his second marker of the night. I haven't reviewed the game yet, but it looked to me like his shot from down low banked off Erik Cole's skate out front. I guess they ruled that it was off a Lightning skate, because Staalsy was given the credit. There were a lot of legs out in front, and it definitely bounced in off somebody's skate. It was a power play goal, and the assists went to Rod Brind'Amour and Anton Babchuk. Marc Denis was replaced by the Swede - Johan Holmqvist

At 12:23, Ruslan Fedotenko brought the Bolts to within two. The Bolts were on the power play, and Filip Kuba ripped a shot from the high slot. Fedotenko barely got a stick on it to re-direct it. Kuba and The Horseman (Vincent LaCavalier) got the assists.

Somewhere around the 14:00 mark, Erik Cole had a breakaway chance that was denied when he was flat-out tackled by a Bolts skater. He slid into the net, knocking it off its moorings. Referee Kevin Pollock made some sort of strange gesture that suggested he was about to award a penalty shot, but changed his mind at the last nanosecond. Not only was there not a penalty shot, but there wasn't even a penalty. No obstruction-holding, or tripping, or obstruction-interference. Nothing. The gesture that Pollock actually made was to point to where the ensuing faceoff was to take place.

A few minutes later, The Horseman made things really interesting. At the 16:41 mark, he got a power play marker with an easy stuff-in of a rebound. Vaclav Prospal (who I refuse to call "Vinny") and Dan Boyle got helpers.

Scott Walker scored a goal from the right dot at 17:34 of the second. He and Eric Staal were in on a semi-break. Don't look now, but Scott Walker (who needs a nickname) has a solid chance of becoming my favorite player.

At 0:55 of the third, Scott Walker scored again, putting him 2/3 of the way to a natural hat trick. It was an easy stuff-in, a complete garbage goal that was the result of poor rebound control by Holmqvist. A garbage goal is still a goal, though. They all look pretty in the box score. Ray Whitney and Rod Brind'Amour got the assists.

Marty St. Louis wrapped up the scoring at 11:32 of the third. Just as a penalty to Mike Commodore had expired, he got one past Cam Ward. Kuba and Boyle got the helpers.

John Tortarella pulled his keeper with about 2:00 to play and his team trailing by two goals. They couldn't create any magic, nor could Carolina notch an empty netter. Eric Staal and Scott Walker both had good chances to complete their hat trick, but Martin St. Louis made some really nice plays to prevent any further scoring.

What about the "weird stuff"? I saw two things tonight that I've never seen before. Both in the third frame. At some point, Erik Cole had puck bounce around off some sticks, and ended up on the inside of his helmet. Somehow, the puck got lodged between the bridge of Cole's nose and the shield.
Also, Glen Wesley's stick got stuck in the glass on the sidewall. Some crazy way, the blade of his stick came up on the plexiglass and got stuck in the tiny microscopic gap between glass and the metal support stanchion. Possibly, it was in the hinge to the referee's gate. Either way, it was stuck there. He couldn't free it, so he had to leave it there. Despite the fact that it was sticking out, and could have been dangerous, the refs allowed play to continue.

At about 16:00, Tim Gleason had to leave the game. He was checked into the end wall on what seemed like a harmless innocent play. He got up a little slow, grimaced, left the ice, and immediately went to the locker room. We never saw him again, nor did we hear anything about his status. It has the earmarks of a dislocated shoulder, which would certainly be very bad news. He re-appeared later, letting us breathe a sigh of relief.


For the record, the "official" three stars went to Brind'Amour(3), Walker(2) and Staal(1). If I were handing them out, I would have given them to LaCavalier(3), Staal(2) and Walker (1).

In other news, the Sabres aren't invincible.

Next up for the Canes: Wednesday night at Atlanta.