On Wednesday night, the Hurricanes were in a "must win" situation against the lowly Lightning. They met the task at hand and have put the ball deep in the Capitals court. There is still a way for both Carolina and Washington to make the dance, but both teams would much rather have the automatic bid. Carolina has done their part for now. They'll worry about Friday when Friday gets here.
The game wasn't part of my season ticket package, but I had an unused ticket which I traded in for a ticket to this. Unfortunately, there were no tickets available in the lower bowl, for for the first time since 2002, my spoiled ass had to "slum it" in the upper deck. I was happy to see, though that my seat was in the fabled section 328, in the front row of that corner section. I might not like it so much if I had been higher up, but that front row seat was pretty cool. 328, as you will know if you ever read AQas , is the section which lustily taunts the visiting goalie every game. They also have lots of other colorful chants and rituals that I just don't see in other parts of the arena. Good stuff.
Eric Staal scored the game's first goal on the first shot just 32 seconds in. The game was already over at that point.
Because I'm pressed for time, I won't give the fully detailed recap.
Chad "Sharpie" LaRose had a goal in each period, and was far and away the game's and the NHL's first star. The first two were typical LaRose goals. Hard working, scrappy, dirty hands type of goals. Loose change, rebounds. The third was a beautiful goal scorer's goal. He came in alone down the left wing and was fed by a nifty pass off the wall from Erik Cole. He deked a few times and thoroughly beat the goalie, then did a Statue of Liberty celebration. What a goofball.
Eric Staal had a goal and an assist and was the third star. Ruuty had a goal and an assist and was the second star. Erik Cole had two assists. Dennis Seidenberg had two assists. Everybody played well, including a surprise return by Matt "concussion" Cullen.
The players all said that they won't be watching the Caps-Lightning game tonight. I think they're liars.
RBH three stars
THIRD STAR Eric Staal, CAR -- goal, assist.
SECOND STAR Tuomo Ruutu, CAR -- goal, assist, 7 hits.
FIRST STAR Chad LaRose, CAR -- three goals.
With one game to play, Carolina has a two point lead. Washington has a game in hand, which will be played tonight. If Washington loses either of their remaining games in regulation OR if Carolina wins their game on Friday, the division is Carolina's.
Showing posts with label game recap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game recap. Show all posts
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Canes smash Thrash, inch closer to division title
On Friday night, the Hurricanes destroyed the Thrashers 7-1 and restored their division lead to a more comfortable four points. If the stars align correctly, the Hurricanes can clinch the division tonight. If the Canes can win at Tampa and the Capitals lose in regulation at Florida, Carolina will secure the division.
A fully detailed recap will come later, but it was the unusual suspects who did the heavy lifting in this game. Eric Staal got the game's first goal less than a minute in. After that, it was the less glamorous players. Joe Corvo had one goal, Tuomo Ruutu had two, Jeff Hamilton had two, and Trevor Letowski had a shorthanded goal. In addition to the shorty, Carolina notched five power play goals. It was the best power play performance since the 6-4 win against Detroit on the day after Thanksgiving in 2002.
Tonight's puck drop will be at 7:30. Although they swear that they don't do things like this, the Hurricanes will be scoreboard watching, as the Caps and Kitties have a 7:00 start.
The Bolts, like the Thrashers, have nothing to play for at this point. It showed last night, as the Thrashers were undisciplined and got dirty late in the game. I hope it doesn't happen again tonight.
A fully detailed recap will come later, but it was the unusual suspects who did the heavy lifting in this game. Eric Staal got the game's first goal less than a minute in. After that, it was the less glamorous players. Joe Corvo had one goal, Tuomo Ruutu had two, Jeff Hamilton had two, and Trevor Letowski had a shorthanded goal. In addition to the shorty, Carolina notched five power play goals. It was the best power play performance since the 6-4 win against Detroit on the day after Thanksgiving in 2002.
Tonight's puck drop will be at 7:30. Although they swear that they don't do things like this, the Hurricanes will be scoreboard watching, as the Caps and Kitties have a 7:00 start.
The Bolts, like the Thrashers, have nothing to play for at this point. It showed last night, as the Thrashers were undisciplined and got dirty late in the game. I hope it doesn't happen again tonight.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Carolina wins again, widens lead
On Thursday, Carolina continued their fiery month of March with a shootout win over the Panthers. Although they allowed the Panthers to get one point, the important thing is that they got two of their own, padding their division lead.
Carolina's lead is now seven points over Washington and eight over Florida. Both teams have a game in hand. Even if one of those teams runs the table, Carolina can secure the division championship with a run of 3-2-1 down the stretch.
In typical fashion, Florida coach Jacques Martin was whining to the press before the game about how Carolina is a bunch of divers and how the officiating favors Carolina. In this game, though, Carolina had just two power plays. Florida had five. When they had their chances -- and they did -- they couldn't do anything about it.
Trevor Letowski got on the board early with a surprise shot from just inside the Florida blue line. Tomas Vokoun was surprised by it, or didn't see it. Whatever the case, it was a shot that he should have stopped, but it ended up beating him cleanly high on the blocker side. 3:22 was the time of the goal, and it was assisted by Glen Wesley and Nick Wallin.
The second period was filled with penalties against the Canes, but the penalty killers were amazing. Cam Ward was the best penalty killer, and he was sensational in the second frame. He had one save in particular against Olie Jokinen late in the period that was a highlight reel keeper. Ward had to explode from his right to left, stack the pads and made a sensational glove save from point blank range as Jokinen had made the "perfect" shot, getting it over the pads.
Steven Weiss broke up the shutout 22 seconds into the third, assisted by David Booth and Jay Bouwmeester. It was one of the few times all game where Cam Ward's rebound control wasn't great. Booth took a shot from the left circle that Ward knocked down into the slot. Weiss gathered it and deposited it into the far side of the net.
Florida had lots of late chances, including some power play time, but they couldn't take the lead, and on it went to overtime. Nothing notable happened in the overtime, and it went to shootout.
Carolina went first, and Jeff Hamilton was stopped. After the first Florida shooter went wide of the net, Sergei Samsonov scored. The second Florida shooter was stopped by Ward. Eric Staal got a cheap one to trickle through the pads of Vokoun, and the bottom of the third was unnecessary.
The RBH three stars were exactly like the "official" stars.
THIRD STAR Steven Weiss, FLA --- goal
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR --- 36 saves, shootout win
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov --- shootout winner
Carolina will be idle for the next four days, and the word on the street is that Peter Laviolette has told the boys to take some time for themselves. Washington will use their game in hand tonight against the lowly Thrashers. Then, a gigantic matchup in Raleigh on Tuesday.
Carolina's lead is now seven points over Washington and eight over Florida. Both teams have a game in hand. Even if one of those teams runs the table, Carolina can secure the division championship with a run of 3-2-1 down the stretch.
In typical fashion, Florida coach Jacques Martin was whining to the press before the game about how Carolina is a bunch of divers and how the officiating favors Carolina. In this game, though, Carolina had just two power plays. Florida had five. When they had their chances -- and they did -- they couldn't do anything about it.
Trevor Letowski got on the board early with a surprise shot from just inside the Florida blue line. Tomas Vokoun was surprised by it, or didn't see it. Whatever the case, it was a shot that he should have stopped, but it ended up beating him cleanly high on the blocker side. 3:22 was the time of the goal, and it was assisted by Glen Wesley and Nick Wallin.
The second period was filled with penalties against the Canes, but the penalty killers were amazing. Cam Ward was the best penalty killer, and he was sensational in the second frame. He had one save in particular against Olie Jokinen late in the period that was a highlight reel keeper. Ward had to explode from his right to left, stack the pads and made a sensational glove save from point blank range as Jokinen had made the "perfect" shot, getting it over the pads.
Steven Weiss broke up the shutout 22 seconds into the third, assisted by David Booth and Jay Bouwmeester. It was one of the few times all game where Cam Ward's rebound control wasn't great. Booth took a shot from the left circle that Ward knocked down into the slot. Weiss gathered it and deposited it into the far side of the net.
Florida had lots of late chances, including some power play time, but they couldn't take the lead, and on it went to overtime. Nothing notable happened in the overtime, and it went to shootout.
Carolina went first, and Jeff Hamilton was stopped. After the first Florida shooter went wide of the net, Sergei Samsonov scored. The second Florida shooter was stopped by Ward. Eric Staal got a cheap one to trickle through the pads of Vokoun, and the bottom of the third was unnecessary.
The RBH three stars were exactly like the "official" stars.
THIRD STAR Steven Weiss, FLA --- goal
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR --- 36 saves, shootout win
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov --- shootout winner
Carolina will be idle for the next four days, and the word on the street is that Peter Laviolette has told the boys to take some time for themselves. Washington will use their game in hand tonight against the lowly Thrashers. Then, a gigantic matchup in Raleigh on Tuesday.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Canes beat Thrash, widen lead
On Wednesday night, the Hurricanes defeated the Thrashers 5-3 and have gained their 85th standings point. As I am typing, Washington trails Chicago 5-0 midway through the second period. This is also good news.
If the game in Chicago holds up, Carolina will end the night with a five point lead over Washington with seven games (all within the division) to play. The road has just gotten a little easier to hoe.
Carolina's next two games could either put it out of reach, or make it really interesting. They will be in Florida on Thursday and at home against the Caps on next Tuesday. The Cats are smoldering hot and will be rested for Thursday's game. They will have the chance to move into second place in the division.
Although the score of Wednesday's game was 5-3, it wasn't that close. This game was all Canes.
Trevor "The Dude" Letowski started it all off at 4:04 of the first with a shot from the right circle. Patty Eaves made a really pretty cross-slot pass. Ruuty got the secondary helper.
Sergei Samsonov got an unassisted goal at 6:58 after putting on a stick-handling show. His shot came from above the right circle, and the rout was on.
At 13:35, the future captain Eric Staal potted his 35th goal of the season. He came fresh off the bench, created a neutral zone turnover, then took a pass from Jeff Hamilton in the high slot to make it 3-0.
Cam Ward's shutout bid didn't last long, as Bryan Little broke it up just 1:56 into the middle frame. Slava Kozlov and Mark Recchi got the helpers.
Joe Jensen, whose claim to fame heretofore was puking on the bench in his NHL debut, potted the game winner at 3:35 of the second. He was low in the right circle, and received a nice pass from Hamilton from below the goal line. He snapped it in on the far side for his first NHL goal. Tim ("don't call me Tom") Conboy got the second assist.
Steve McCarthy made it 4-2 at 4:56, and it was starting to get a little interesting. He scooped up some loose change out front and deposited it into Ward's net for his first goal. Chris Thorburn and the 1989 Hartford Whalers first round draft pick Bobby Holik got the helpers.
Erik Cole scored his 21st goal of the season at 14:51 of the third. From below the goal line, Sergei Samsonov made a phenomenal no-look, behind the back pass to Cole, who was hanging out in the left circle. He got a couple of whacks at it, and finally beat The Moose, making it 5-2. Bret Hedican, whose wife was apparently very good on "Dancing With the Stars" the other night, got the secondary assist.
Kozlov got a late garbage goal at 19:21, assisted by Little and Recchi.
This game had only four penalties. I guess the referees had tickets to Hanna Montana or something like that. They were in a real hurry to get out of there.
Carolina completely dominated the first, then slacked off in the second, then played well in the third. Good enough to beat the Thrashers, but they'll have to have 60 minute efforts against the likes of Washington and Florida, whom they play twice each in the remaining seven games.
The "official" three stars are a bit loopy. Okay. They're a LOT loopy. Word on the street is that these things aren't really selected by the "local media". Sometimes, it's some intern who randomly chooses names. This seems like one of those. The official stars were Steve McCarthy (third), Eric Staal (second) and Cam Ward (first). None of these were even in my top five stars. I don't get that.
The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Vyacheslav Kozlov, ATL -- 1 goal, 1 assist.
SECOND STAR Jeffrey Hamilton, CAR -- 2 assists.
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR -- 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 blocked shots.
Carolina will have no time to rest. They're headed to Sunrise for a 7:30 game on Thursday.
A little birdy has told me that Justin Viva Williams is very close to being ready to rejoin the team after missing the last 39 games with MCL/ACL issues. This makes me very happy.
If the game in Chicago holds up, Carolina will end the night with a five point lead over Washington with seven games (all within the division) to play. The road has just gotten a little easier to hoe.
Carolina's next two games could either put it out of reach, or make it really interesting. They will be in Florida on Thursday and at home against the Caps on next Tuesday. The Cats are smoldering hot and will be rested for Thursday's game. They will have the chance to move into second place in the division.
Although the score of Wednesday's game was 5-3, it wasn't that close. This game was all Canes.
Trevor "The Dude" Letowski started it all off at 4:04 of the first with a shot from the right circle. Patty Eaves made a really pretty cross-slot pass. Ruuty got the secondary helper.
Sergei Samsonov got an unassisted goal at 6:58 after putting on a stick-handling show. His shot came from above the right circle, and the rout was on.
At 13:35, the future captain Eric Staal potted his 35th goal of the season. He came fresh off the bench, created a neutral zone turnover, then took a pass from Jeff Hamilton in the high slot to make it 3-0.
Cam Ward's shutout bid didn't last long, as Bryan Little broke it up just 1:56 into the middle frame. Slava Kozlov and Mark Recchi got the helpers.
Joe Jensen, whose claim to fame heretofore was puking on the bench in his NHL debut, potted the game winner at 3:35 of the second. He was low in the right circle, and received a nice pass from Hamilton from below the goal line. He snapped it in on the far side for his first NHL goal. Tim ("don't call me Tom") Conboy got the second assist.
Steve McCarthy made it 4-2 at 4:56, and it was starting to get a little interesting. He scooped up some loose change out front and deposited it into Ward's net for his first goal. Chris Thorburn and the 1989 Hartford Whalers first round draft pick Bobby Holik got the helpers.
Erik Cole scored his 21st goal of the season at 14:51 of the third. From below the goal line, Sergei Samsonov made a phenomenal no-look, behind the back pass to Cole, who was hanging out in the left circle. He got a couple of whacks at it, and finally beat The Moose, making it 5-2. Bret Hedican, whose wife was apparently very good on "Dancing With the Stars" the other night, got the secondary assist.
Kozlov got a late garbage goal at 19:21, assisted by Little and Recchi.
This game had only four penalties. I guess the referees had tickets to Hanna Montana or something like that. They were in a real hurry to get out of there.
Carolina completely dominated the first, then slacked off in the second, then played well in the third. Good enough to beat the Thrashers, but they'll have to have 60 minute efforts against the likes of Washington and Florida, whom they play twice each in the remaining seven games.
The "official" three stars are a bit loopy. Okay. They're a LOT loopy. Word on the street is that these things aren't really selected by the "local media". Sometimes, it's some intern who randomly chooses names. This seems like one of those. The official stars were Steve McCarthy (third), Eric Staal (second) and Cam Ward (first). None of these were even in my top five stars. I don't get that.
The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Vyacheslav Kozlov, ATL -- 1 goal, 1 assist.
SECOND STAR Jeffrey Hamilton, CAR -- 2 assists.
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR -- 1 goal, 1 assist, 3 blocked shots.
Carolina will have no time to rest. They're headed to Sunrise for a 7:30 game on Thursday.
A little birdy has told me that Justin Viva Williams is very close to being ready to rejoin the team after missing the last 39 games with MCL/ACL issues. This makes me very happy.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Canes rebound, crush Sens
On Sunday afternoon, the Hurricanes put the bad loss in Buffalo behind them by pasting the visiting Senators 5-1. To make things extra sweet, it became even more clear that Carolina got the better end of the February 11 trade.
Joe Corvo, who hated the Canadian press, and who was constantly maligned by the Sens faithful, had a spectacular night. He recorded his first career hat trick, notching goals 10,11 and 12 of the season. He now has 42 (12/30) points on the season. 15 (6/9) have come in 15 games since joining the Hurricanes.
Dany Heatley got the scoring off to an early start when the Sens cashed in on a five-on-three power play situation. Jason Spezza made a very nice cross-ice pass to Heatley, who was parked by the right post. He tucked it in for the early lead, but it would be the Sens only bright spot. Cory Stillman got the secondary assist.
Patrick Eaves, the other part of that Feb 11 trade, got his first goal in a Hurricanes uniform during the Canes first power play of the afternoon. Frantisek Kaberle's hard shot from the blue line was tipped by Eaves at the top of the goal crease. The penalty, by the way, was Mike Commodore's. Officially, the power play goal was at 7:00 of the first, and it was assisted by Kaberle and Scott Walker.
Mike Commodore's night got worse when his second penalty of the game led to Carolina's second goal of the game at 10:24. Joe Corvo fired a cannon from the high slot that the Gerber Baby had no chance on. The game-winning goal was during a four-on-three power play. Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal got the assists.
Scott Walker scored his second goal in as many games, beating Gerber with a nasty wrist shot at 5:56 of the second. After a Sens turnover, Eric Staal fed Tim Gleason, who joined the 3-on-2 rush. Gleason, streaking down the right wing made a beautiful pass to Walker, who wristed it in from the inside hash marks of the left circle.
There was no more scoring in the second, but it was emblematic of the Sens play for the whole game. They only mustered three shots in the second frame, and they committed five penalties. The puck was in the Ottawa end for probably 70% of the period.
At 2:09 of the final stanza, Joe Corvo got his second goal of the night with a laser beam from the top of the right circle. Again on the power play, and again it was assisted by Samsonov and Staal.
To cap a magnificent afternoon, Corvo scored on a nifty backhand goal at 17:50 of the third to finish a breakaway . Tuomo Ruutu got the only assist. It was Corvo's first career hat trick, and perhaps the first one ever by a Hurricanes defenseman.
It's hard to argue with the "official" three stars of Patrick Eaves (third), Eric Staal (second) and Joe Corvo (first). While that's cute to give both former Sens a star, I think I've gotta give SerSam some love on this one. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR --- 2 assists, 2 takeaways
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 3 assists
FIRST STAR Joe Corvo, 3 goals, 3 blocked shots
Mike Commodore had a dismal day, and has been nothing but trouble for the Sens. His two penalties today both resulted in Canes goals. He doled out five hits, but has been for Ottawa thus far exactly what he had grown to be in Carolina: a liability. In 17 games with the Sens, he has no points and is a -8.
Cory Stillman had an assist on Ottawa's only goal. In 17 games for them, he has 14 (2/12) points and is a -5.
On the other hand...
Joe Corvo has 15 points (6/9) in 15 games with Carolina and is a +6.
Patrick Eaves has 4 points (1/3) in 9 games with Carolina and is a -1.
Although Carolina took care of their end, they didn't get help from their SE enemies. Both Washington and Florida won their games. Carolina's lead in the SE remains at five points.
Carolina will be off until Wednesday, when they travel to Atlanta.
After this game, what will the Canadian press say about Corvo?
Joe Corvo, who hated the Canadian press, and who was constantly maligned by the Sens faithful, had a spectacular night. He recorded his first career hat trick, notching goals 10,11 and 12 of the season. He now has 42 (12/30) points on the season. 15 (6/9) have come in 15 games since joining the Hurricanes.
Dany Heatley got the scoring off to an early start when the Sens cashed in on a five-on-three power play situation. Jason Spezza made a very nice cross-ice pass to Heatley, who was parked by the right post. He tucked it in for the early lead, but it would be the Sens only bright spot. Cory Stillman got the secondary assist.
Patrick Eaves, the other part of that Feb 11 trade, got his first goal in a Hurricanes uniform during the Canes first power play of the afternoon. Frantisek Kaberle's hard shot from the blue line was tipped by Eaves at the top of the goal crease. The penalty, by the way, was Mike Commodore's. Officially, the power play goal was at 7:00 of the first, and it was assisted by Kaberle and Scott Walker.
Mike Commodore's night got worse when his second penalty of the game led to Carolina's second goal of the game at 10:24. Joe Corvo fired a cannon from the high slot that the Gerber Baby had no chance on. The game-winning goal was during a four-on-three power play. Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal got the assists.
Scott Walker scored his second goal in as many games, beating Gerber with a nasty wrist shot at 5:56 of the second. After a Sens turnover, Eric Staal fed Tim Gleason, who joined the 3-on-2 rush. Gleason, streaking down the right wing made a beautiful pass to Walker, who wristed it in from the inside hash marks of the left circle.
There was no more scoring in the second, but it was emblematic of the Sens play for the whole game. They only mustered three shots in the second frame, and they committed five penalties. The puck was in the Ottawa end for probably 70% of the period.
At 2:09 of the final stanza, Joe Corvo got his second goal of the night with a laser beam from the top of the right circle. Again on the power play, and again it was assisted by Samsonov and Staal.
To cap a magnificent afternoon, Corvo scored on a nifty backhand goal at 17:50 of the third to finish a breakaway . Tuomo Ruutu got the only assist. It was Corvo's first career hat trick, and perhaps the first one ever by a Hurricanes defenseman.
It's hard to argue with the "official" three stars of Patrick Eaves (third), Eric Staal (second) and Joe Corvo (first). While that's cute to give both former Sens a star, I think I've gotta give SerSam some love on this one. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR --- 2 assists, 2 takeaways
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 3 assists
FIRST STAR Joe Corvo, 3 goals, 3 blocked shots
Mike Commodore had a dismal day, and has been nothing but trouble for the Sens. His two penalties today both resulted in Canes goals. He doled out five hits, but has been for Ottawa thus far exactly what he had grown to be in Carolina: a liability. In 17 games with the Sens, he has no points and is a -8.
Cory Stillman had an assist on Ottawa's only goal. In 17 games for them, he has 14 (2/12) points and is a -5.
On the other hand...
Joe Corvo has 15 points (6/9) in 15 games with Carolina and is a +6.
Patrick Eaves has 4 points (1/3) in 9 games with Carolina and is a -1.
Although Carolina took care of their end, they didn't get help from their SE enemies. Both Washington and Florida won their games. Carolina's lead in the SE remains at five points.
Carolina will be off until Wednesday, when they travel to Atlanta.
After this game, what will the Canadian press say about Corvo?
Friday, March 14, 2008
Sabres rout Hurricanes (again)
On Friday, the Sabres demolished the Canes 7-1. They got goals from six different players, and they played a sound game all the way around.
Like the last visit to HSBC, the Sabres got off to a roaring start and had the game well in hand by the second intermission. Like the last one, Miller gave up a meaningless goal late to spoil the shutout bid.
The Sabres got goals from Daniel Paille, Adam Mair, Derek Roy (shorthanded), Paul Gustad, Patrick Kaleta, Roy again and Ales Kotalik (power play).
The Hurricanes could only muster one goal, a shorthanded marker by Scott Walker.
The FSN South crew kept talking about how Lindy Ruff held his team on the ice after practice yesterday and "held court" with them for some period of time between 13 minutes and 17 minutes. Whatever he said to them worked.
The Sabres came to play, and they came out of the gates hard and fast. The first goal came at 4:44 of the first, and the second at 5:06. The game was already over.
In addition to the embarrassing loss, both the Capitals and the Panthers won their games, trimming Carolina's SE lead to five points.
There were a ton of bad things about tonight, but there were actually a few good things. Carolina took about a million penalties, but the PK units did a spectacular job of killing all but one of the power plays that Buffalo enjoyed.
As the game neared the end, Carolina lost its composure and took a bunch of undisciplined penalties. By the end of it all, Carolina had 20 penalties to Buffalo's 13. Where it really mattered was that the Hurricanes were shorthanded for 18:44. Buffalo, on the other hand, was shorthanded for 6:33. In the first two periods, the penalties were even, but Carolina let frustration get the better of them and there was a constant parade to the box.
Carolina ruined the shutout, which is (sort of) a bright side.
They scored a shorthanded goal, which is (sort of) a bright side.
Most importantly, Carolina won't be going back to Buffalo until next season. In two games there this year, Carolina has played very poorly and have been outscored 15-2.
Carolina will now lick their wounds and return to Raleigh, where they will meet the Senators on Sunday.
The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Ryan Miller, BUF --- 27 saves
SECOND STAR Adam Mair, BUF --- GWG, 2 assists
FIRST STAR Derek Roy, BUF --- 2 goals, 1 assist
Special mention to Scott Walker, who scored Carolina's only goal on a shortie. He also amassed 23 penalty minutes.
Somehow, Glen Wesley of the Canes ended up with a +1 rating.
Somehow, Ales Kotalik, Max Afinogenov and Jochen Hecht of the Sabres all ended up with a -1 rating.
Eric Staal, Sergei Samsonov, Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo all had their five game points streak stopped. The Hurricanes had their five game win streak snapped.
Like the last visit to HSBC, the Sabres got off to a roaring start and had the game well in hand by the second intermission. Like the last one, Miller gave up a meaningless goal late to spoil the shutout bid.
The Sabres got goals from Daniel Paille, Adam Mair, Derek Roy (shorthanded), Paul Gustad, Patrick Kaleta, Roy again and Ales Kotalik (power play).
The Hurricanes could only muster one goal, a shorthanded marker by Scott Walker.
The FSN South crew kept talking about how Lindy Ruff held his team on the ice after practice yesterday and "held court" with them for some period of time between 13 minutes and 17 minutes. Whatever he said to them worked.
The Sabres came to play, and they came out of the gates hard and fast. The first goal came at 4:44 of the first, and the second at 5:06. The game was already over.
In addition to the embarrassing loss, both the Capitals and the Panthers won their games, trimming Carolina's SE lead to five points.
There were a ton of bad things about tonight, but there were actually a few good things. Carolina took about a million penalties, but the PK units did a spectacular job of killing all but one of the power plays that Buffalo enjoyed.
As the game neared the end, Carolina lost its composure and took a bunch of undisciplined penalties. By the end of it all, Carolina had 20 penalties to Buffalo's 13. Where it really mattered was that the Hurricanes were shorthanded for 18:44. Buffalo, on the other hand, was shorthanded for 6:33. In the first two periods, the penalties were even, but Carolina let frustration get the better of them and there was a constant parade to the box.
Carolina ruined the shutout, which is (sort of) a bright side.
They scored a shorthanded goal, which is (sort of) a bright side.
Most importantly, Carolina won't be going back to Buffalo until next season. In two games there this year, Carolina has played very poorly and have been outscored 15-2.
Carolina will now lick their wounds and return to Raleigh, where they will meet the Senators on Sunday.
The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Ryan Miller, BUF --- 27 saves
SECOND STAR Adam Mair, BUF --- GWG, 2 assists
FIRST STAR Derek Roy, BUF --- 2 goals, 1 assist
Special mention to Scott Walker, who scored Carolina's only goal on a shortie. He also amassed 23 penalty minutes.
Somehow, Glen Wesley of the Canes ended up with a +1 rating.
Somehow, Ales Kotalik, Max Afinogenov and Jochen Hecht of the Sabres all ended up with a -1 rating.
Eric Staal, Sergei Samsonov, Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo all had their five game points streak stopped. The Hurricanes had their five game win streak snapped.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Canes roll over Chicago
On Wednesday, the Hurricanes continued their torrid streak by shutting out the Blackhawks 3-0 in the United Center. Carolina got all the scoring they needed in the first period, then clamped down on defense to win a very convincing game over a desperate but tired team. While the Hurricanes had been off since Saturday, the 'Hawks were in Detroit on Tuesday.
Washington and Florida both won earlier in the evening, but Carolina's victory keeps their cushion at a comfortable seven points in the SE division. Washington has a game in hand, plus two of those "four point" games against the Canes. They are all "must win" games for the Caps. Florida also has two of the "four point" games.
Erik Cole got the scoring started at 8:57 of the first with a power play marker. All alone in the slot, his shot easily beat Corey Crawford for the game winner. Sergei Samsonov set it up nicely down below the goal line. Eric Staal got the secondary assist.
At 10:39 of the first, Matt Cullen cashed in on the second power play of the game. He pounded away at the rebound of a Staal shot until it found its way through Crawford.
Eric Staal capped a magnificent period with a breakaway goal from his backhand. Joe Corvo and Tuomo Ruutu assisted. It was Staal's 70th (34/36) point of the season and the third (1/2) point of the game.
Later in the first, Matt Cullen made a goal-saving play. While Cam Ward was down and out after making a save, a stuffback attempt fluttered through the crease. Cullen pounced on the loose puck and sent it out.
Ward had some help from the heavy metal on a few occasions, but the Hurricanes also hit a couple of posts. Although there were long periods of inactivity, Ward was sharp and made some very nice saves down the stretch on the way to his sixth career shutout.
The "official" three stars went to Patrick Kane (third), Cam Ward (second) and Eric Staal (first). Kane was obviously just a gratuitous pick. The RBH stars:
THIRD STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- goal
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR --- 25 saves, shutout
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- goal, 2 assists
Carolina has now won five games in a row and is in a situation where they can control their own playoff destiny. On Friday, they will visit Buffalo, who will be ready to avenge their loss here last Saturday.
Washington and Florida both won earlier in the evening, but Carolina's victory keeps their cushion at a comfortable seven points in the SE division. Washington has a game in hand, plus two of those "four point" games against the Canes. They are all "must win" games for the Caps. Florida also has two of the "four point" games.
Erik Cole got the scoring started at 8:57 of the first with a power play marker. All alone in the slot, his shot easily beat Corey Crawford for the game winner. Sergei Samsonov set it up nicely down below the goal line. Eric Staal got the secondary assist.
At 10:39 of the first, Matt Cullen cashed in on the second power play of the game. He pounded away at the rebound of a Staal shot until it found its way through Crawford.
Eric Staal capped a magnificent period with a breakaway goal from his backhand. Joe Corvo and Tuomo Ruutu assisted. It was Staal's 70th (34/36) point of the season and the third (1/2) point of the game.
Later in the first, Matt Cullen made a goal-saving play. While Cam Ward was down and out after making a save, a stuffback attempt fluttered through the crease. Cullen pounced on the loose puck and sent it out.
Ward had some help from the heavy metal on a few occasions, but the Hurricanes also hit a couple of posts. Although there were long periods of inactivity, Ward was sharp and made some very nice saves down the stretch on the way to his sixth career shutout.
The "official" three stars went to Patrick Kane (third), Cam Ward (second) and Eric Staal (first). Kane was obviously just a gratuitous pick. The RBH stars:
THIRD STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- goal
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR --- 25 saves, shutout
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- goal, 2 assists
Carolina has now won five games in a row and is in a situation where they can control their own playoff destiny. On Friday, they will visit Buffalo, who will be ready to avenge their loss here last Saturday.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Canes down Sabres, widen lead
On Saturday night, the Hurricanes beat Buffalo 4-3 in overtime. It was the second of three things to make this a perfect day for RBH.
Earlier in the day, the Capitals self-destructed in the third period of their game against Boston, handing the Bruins the game. Thing one.
Thing two was this game. Just as I suspected, it wasn't at all like either of the two previous games between the teams this season.
It's beginning to sound like a broken record, but the new guys and the "Rat Pack" were major players in the game. There is no way Carolina would be where they are today without the major contributions from new guys (Sergei Samsonov, Joe Corvo, Patrick Eaves, Tuomo Ruutu) or the "Rat Pack" (Keith Aucoin, Ryan Bayda, Tim Conboy, Wade Brookbank).
Aucoin got the Hurricanes on the board first with a really nice finish of a well played shift. Ryan Bayda was relentless with his shot and rebound attempts. Finally, a rebound went out to Aucoin at the inside hashmarks of the right circle. He snapped it in at 16:35. Bayda and Corvo had the assists.
As the goal was being announced over the PA, Tim Gleason made it 2-0. Matt Cullen won the draw back to Gleason, who tried a shot from the right point. It was turned aside by Ryan Miller, but Eaves fed it back to Gleason for a second shot. This time it found the net. Officially, the goal was Gleason from Eaves and Cullen at 17:01.
Derek Roy pulled the Sabres to within one goal at 7:46 of the second. Cam Ward made a sloppy play behind his own net and Roy capitalized on it by pouncing on a loose puck in front and sliding it past Ward. The unassisted goal was Roy's 27th marker of the season. He is now tied with Thomas Vanek for the team lead.
Sergei Samsonov continued his skyrocket-like success by notching his 12th goal since joining the Hurricanes 27 games ago. Eric Staal fired a shot from the high slot that was answered by Miller, but Samsonov swatted the rebound out of mid-air and into the net. Dennis Seidenberg got the secondary assist, and the official time was 8:52 of the second.
Drew Stafford again cut the lead to one when he got a tip-in at 18:07 of the second. The Sabres worked hard and created a ton of traffic on the play. There were two unattended Sabres right on the front doorstep, and Stafford just happened to be the one who got his stick on it. Dmitri Kalinin and Derek Roy got the assists.
Both teams really battened down the hatches and everyone knew that the third period would be a good one. The only scoring came at the midway point of the period. Bret Hedican took one of his trademark bad penalties, tripping Maxim Afinogenov. On the ensuing power play, the Sabres created havoc in front of Cam Ward, and in the havoc, Ward lost his stick. Toni Lydman willed the puck in, and there was a brand new game. Officially, the power play goal came at 10:00 of the third. Lydman from Jochen Hecht and Afinogenov.
Late in the third, Ryan Miller was outstanding. He made a dazzling stop on Eric Staal, exploding from his right to left to rob Staal at the right post. Staal had already raised his arms to celebrate, but Miller was better. A few minutes later, he made a fantastic save on Sergei Samsonov, taking away another sure goal.
The game went to overtime, and Miller again robbed Samsonov early in the extra frame. I was thinking that Samsonov was going to have nightmares about Ryan Miller. However, Jaro Spacek was called for hooking, and the Canes were given a 4-on-3 overtime power play.
Near the end of the power play, Eric Staal wristed a shot from the high slot. Scott Walker was parked in front of the crease and tipped it off the right post and in. After a series of remarkable saves, Miller got beaten by a shot that he had no chance of seeing. Staal and Corvo assisted Walker for the game winner.
The "official" three stars went to Eric Staal(third), Sergei Samsonov (second) and Scott Walker (first). That's just not fair. Ryan Miller played a hell of a game. He was on his head for most of the third period and the overtime. I don't feel right not giving him credit for a heroic effort.
Trevor Letowski was an unsung hero of this game. He did some very nice work on the penalty kill, and he had a good night in the faceoff circle. He finished with a -1 rating and had no points, but I need to mention his hard work tonight and throughout the Hurricanes hot streak.
With special mention to Letowski, Matt Cullen and Ryan Bayda, the RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Ryan Miller, BUF --- 31 saves
SECOND STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 2 assists
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 2 assists
Carolina now has a seven point lead in the division. They have eleven games to play while Washington has 13. The Caps have two games in hand. One will be expended Sunday against the Penguins. The Hurricanes will be off until Wednesday when they will visit Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams, Andrew Ladd and the Blackhawks.
This game made my night good enough, but to cap it off, UNC held off a furious second half rally by Duke to win the big game 76-68. All the detractors have been saying that UNC doesn't deserve its #1 ranking because they "haven't played anybody". Duke is the #5 team in the nation, and UNC beat them in Durham. That should be good enough. It was an emotional day for both teams. Duke had "senior day", and Carolina was playing the first game since the shocking murder of the UNC student body president earlier this week. Duke was classy enough to observe a moment of silence before the game and hand out Carolina blue ribbons in her honor.
Overall, a very good day for RBH.
Earlier in the day, the Capitals self-destructed in the third period of their game against Boston, handing the Bruins the game. Thing one.
Thing two was this game. Just as I suspected, it wasn't at all like either of the two previous games between the teams this season.
It's beginning to sound like a broken record, but the new guys and the "Rat Pack" were major players in the game. There is no way Carolina would be where they are today without the major contributions from new guys (Sergei Samsonov, Joe Corvo, Patrick Eaves, Tuomo Ruutu) or the "Rat Pack" (Keith Aucoin, Ryan Bayda, Tim Conboy, Wade Brookbank).
Aucoin got the Hurricanes on the board first with a really nice finish of a well played shift. Ryan Bayda was relentless with his shot and rebound attempts. Finally, a rebound went out to Aucoin at the inside hashmarks of the right circle. He snapped it in at 16:35. Bayda and Corvo had the assists.
As the goal was being announced over the PA, Tim Gleason made it 2-0. Matt Cullen won the draw back to Gleason, who tried a shot from the right point. It was turned aside by Ryan Miller, but Eaves fed it back to Gleason for a second shot. This time it found the net. Officially, the goal was Gleason from Eaves and Cullen at 17:01.
Derek Roy pulled the Sabres to within one goal at 7:46 of the second. Cam Ward made a sloppy play behind his own net and Roy capitalized on it by pouncing on a loose puck in front and sliding it past Ward. The unassisted goal was Roy's 27th marker of the season. He is now tied with Thomas Vanek for the team lead.
Sergei Samsonov continued his skyrocket-like success by notching his 12th goal since joining the Hurricanes 27 games ago. Eric Staal fired a shot from the high slot that was answered by Miller, but Samsonov swatted the rebound out of mid-air and into the net. Dennis Seidenberg got the secondary assist, and the official time was 8:52 of the second.
Drew Stafford again cut the lead to one when he got a tip-in at 18:07 of the second. The Sabres worked hard and created a ton of traffic on the play. There were two unattended Sabres right on the front doorstep, and Stafford just happened to be the one who got his stick on it. Dmitri Kalinin and Derek Roy got the assists.
Both teams really battened down the hatches and everyone knew that the third period would be a good one. The only scoring came at the midway point of the period. Bret Hedican took one of his trademark bad penalties, tripping Maxim Afinogenov. On the ensuing power play, the Sabres created havoc in front of Cam Ward, and in the havoc, Ward lost his stick. Toni Lydman willed the puck in, and there was a brand new game. Officially, the power play goal came at 10:00 of the third. Lydman from Jochen Hecht and Afinogenov.
Late in the third, Ryan Miller was outstanding. He made a dazzling stop on Eric Staal, exploding from his right to left to rob Staal at the right post. Staal had already raised his arms to celebrate, but Miller was better. A few minutes later, he made a fantastic save on Sergei Samsonov, taking away another sure goal.
The game went to overtime, and Miller again robbed Samsonov early in the extra frame. I was thinking that Samsonov was going to have nightmares about Ryan Miller. However, Jaro Spacek was called for hooking, and the Canes were given a 4-on-3 overtime power play.
Near the end of the power play, Eric Staal wristed a shot from the high slot. Scott Walker was parked in front of the crease and tipped it off the right post and in. After a series of remarkable saves, Miller got beaten by a shot that he had no chance of seeing. Staal and Corvo assisted Walker for the game winner.
The "official" three stars went to Eric Staal(third), Sergei Samsonov (second) and Scott Walker (first). That's just not fair. Ryan Miller played a hell of a game. He was on his head for most of the third period and the overtime. I don't feel right not giving him credit for a heroic effort.
Trevor Letowski was an unsung hero of this game. He did some very nice work on the penalty kill, and he had a good night in the faceoff circle. He finished with a -1 rating and had no points, but I need to mention his hard work tonight and throughout the Hurricanes hot streak.
With special mention to Letowski, Matt Cullen and Ryan Bayda, the RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Ryan Miller, BUF --- 31 saves
SECOND STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 2 assists
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 2 assists
Carolina now has a seven point lead in the division. They have eleven games to play while Washington has 13. The Caps have two games in hand. One will be expended Sunday against the Penguins. The Hurricanes will be off until Wednesday when they will visit Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams, Andrew Ladd and the Blackhawks.
This game made my night good enough, but to cap it off, UNC held off a furious second half rally by Duke to win the big game 76-68. All the detractors have been saying that UNC doesn't deserve its #1 ranking because they "haven't played anybody". Duke is the #5 team in the nation, and UNC beat them in Durham. That should be good enough. It was an emotional day for both teams. Duke had "senior day", and Carolina was playing the first game since the shocking murder of the UNC student body president earlier this week. Duke was classy enough to observe a moment of silence before the game and hand out Carolina blue ribbons in her honor.
Overall, a very good day for RBH.
Friday, March 07, 2008
Carolina wins again, widens lead
On Thursday, Carolina defeated the visiting Wild 3-2 and expanded their SE division lead to five points over idle Washington. The Caps still have two games in hand, but Carolina's win really puts pressure on the Caps to win. The Caps play at the slumping Bruins for lunch on Saturday.
Boston. Holy cow! They've been outscored 19-4 in their last three games. And one of those was a 1-0 game! Canes fans will hope that they can right the ship and do the Hurricanes a favor.
Thursday was a really long and bad day for me. I had tickets to the game, but one thing after another after another after another kept piling on, and I couldn't go. Among the things I had to deal with at work: a being shortstaffed, a bad leak in the ceiling of the dining room, and worst of all: some jackass poured gasoline down the drain in our women's restroom. Aside from the noxious fumes and the potential for an explosion, the gasoline ate through the drain pipes, and we had to spend hundreds of dollars on emergency plumbing. We don't know who did it, and we don't know whether it was a deliberate act of vandalism or some idiot carelessly disposing of unwanted petrol. Suffice to say, things were kinda scary for a while.
I didn't even get to watch the game on TV. Luckily, I had already set the DVR, so I eventually got to watch it.
Here's how things went down:
At 12:30 of the first, Matt Cullen very subtly re-directed a Joe Corvo shot from the right circle. Cullen was in the low slot, and I really don't see how he touched it, but that's what they're calling. The 4-on-4 goal was also assisted by Sergei Samsonov.
Scott Walker made it 2-0 at 14:09 of the first. After Eric Staal attempted a wrap-around to the right post, Walker jumped on the rebound at the bottom of the left circle and snapped it past the Wild goaltender. Keith Aucoin got the secondary assist.
Pavol Demitra put the visitors on the board at 18:02 of the first. From the bottom of the right circle, he beat Cam Ward with a snap shot. Pierre-Marc Bouchard set him up very nicely with a perfect pass from the left dot. Brian Rolston got the second assist.
Mikko Koivu got the equalizer just 19 seconds into the second frame on a gorgeous goal. Aaron Voros made a pass to him from behind the net. At the top of the goal crease, Koivu dragged the puck from his forehand to the backhand and easily finished the play. Marian Gaborik got the secondary assist.
Erik Cole got the game winner at 9:41 during a power play sequence. Like the first goal, it was credited to someone else first, then it was changed. Matt Cullen fired a heavy shot from the high slot which just barely ticked Cole's shin pad on the way through the slot. It's rather silly, but Cole gets credit for the goal and Cullen for the primary assist. Joe Corvo got the secondary assist, and Sergei Samsonov was robbed of an assist.
There was no more scoring in the game, but it got kinda chippy in the third.
Aaron Voros ran Eric Staal into the boards right along the bench area with about 14 minutes to play. Staal lay on the ice for a few seconds while a mini-melee broke out. Erik Cole immediately went after Voros, and all hell broke loose. Scott Walker for the Canes and Keith Carney for the Wild were ejected. Cole was penalized two for instigating, two for unsportsmanlike (instigating whilst wearing a visor), five for fighting and a ten minute misconduct. It was NOT a game misconduct. Voros was given a boarding major and a fighing major. When the dust settled, Carolina had one minute of power play thanks to a silly rule which doesn't give Cole the right to stand up for his teammates. It's absurd that in a situation like that, Cole is expected to go through the normal fighting protocol.
"Um. Excuse me. Mr. Voros. You have violently checked my teammate into the boards. He is our star player, our acting captain, and he is possibly injured badly. You must pay a price for your indiscretion. Would you like to engage in fisticuffs? Oh. Wait, please. I have to discard my helmet first. Okay. Let us commence fighting!"
Lame.
Anyway, the game ended with that 3-2 score, but there was a little bit more tension in the dying seconds. Sergei Samsonov, of all people, threw a punch after he grew tired of being slashed by Nick Schultz down in the corners. Nothing came of that, and with just four seconds remaining, both players were sent to their locker rooms rather than the penalty box.
The "official" three stars and the RBH three stars are the same:
THIRD STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 2 assists
SECOND STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist, 75% (12/16) faceoffs
FIRST STAR Erik Cole, CAR --- GWG
It should not be ignored that Tuomo Ruutu dished out five hits. At least one of them was of the "big" variety.
Also, it should be noted that Patrick Eaves looked good again. He's playing well and clicking with his linemates.
On Saturday, Carolina will face the hungry Sabres. After a loss against Washington on Wednesday, the Sabres are on the outside of the playoff bubble looking in. They have suffered a bunch of injuries lately, plus the subtraction of Brian Campbell from the blue line. This is crunch time, and they need the win. It's always a big game when the Sabres come to town. These two teams just don't get along very well, so both will be "bringing it".
Boston. Holy cow! They've been outscored 19-4 in their last three games. And one of those was a 1-0 game! Canes fans will hope that they can right the ship and do the Hurricanes a favor.
Thursday was a really long and bad day for me. I had tickets to the game, but one thing after another after another after another kept piling on, and I couldn't go. Among the things I had to deal with at work: a being shortstaffed, a bad leak in the ceiling of the dining room, and worst of all: some jackass poured gasoline down the drain in our women's restroom. Aside from the noxious fumes and the potential for an explosion, the gasoline ate through the drain pipes, and we had to spend hundreds of dollars on emergency plumbing. We don't know who did it, and we don't know whether it was a deliberate act of vandalism or some idiot carelessly disposing of unwanted petrol. Suffice to say, things were kinda scary for a while.
I didn't even get to watch the game on TV. Luckily, I had already set the DVR, so I eventually got to watch it.
Here's how things went down:
At 12:30 of the first, Matt Cullen very subtly re-directed a Joe Corvo shot from the right circle. Cullen was in the low slot, and I really don't see how he touched it, but that's what they're calling. The 4-on-4 goal was also assisted by Sergei Samsonov.
Scott Walker made it 2-0 at 14:09 of the first. After Eric Staal attempted a wrap-around to the right post, Walker jumped on the rebound at the bottom of the left circle and snapped it past the Wild goaltender. Keith Aucoin got the secondary assist.
Pavol Demitra put the visitors on the board at 18:02 of the first. From the bottom of the right circle, he beat Cam Ward with a snap shot. Pierre-Marc Bouchard set him up very nicely with a perfect pass from the left dot. Brian Rolston got the second assist.
Mikko Koivu got the equalizer just 19 seconds into the second frame on a gorgeous goal. Aaron Voros made a pass to him from behind the net. At the top of the goal crease, Koivu dragged the puck from his forehand to the backhand and easily finished the play. Marian Gaborik got the secondary assist.
Erik Cole got the game winner at 9:41 during a power play sequence. Like the first goal, it was credited to someone else first, then it was changed. Matt Cullen fired a heavy shot from the high slot which just barely ticked Cole's shin pad on the way through the slot. It's rather silly, but Cole gets credit for the goal and Cullen for the primary assist. Joe Corvo got the secondary assist, and Sergei Samsonov was robbed of an assist.
There was no more scoring in the game, but it got kinda chippy in the third.
Aaron Voros ran Eric Staal into the boards right along the bench area with about 14 minutes to play. Staal lay on the ice for a few seconds while a mini-melee broke out. Erik Cole immediately went after Voros, and all hell broke loose. Scott Walker for the Canes and Keith Carney for the Wild were ejected. Cole was penalized two for instigating, two for unsportsmanlike (instigating whilst wearing a visor), five for fighting and a ten minute misconduct. It was NOT a game misconduct. Voros was given a boarding major and a fighing major. When the dust settled, Carolina had one minute of power play thanks to a silly rule which doesn't give Cole the right to stand up for his teammates. It's absurd that in a situation like that, Cole is expected to go through the normal fighting protocol.
"Um. Excuse me. Mr. Voros. You have violently checked my teammate into the boards. He is our star player, our acting captain, and he is possibly injured badly. You must pay a price for your indiscretion. Would you like to engage in fisticuffs? Oh. Wait, please. I have to discard my helmet first. Okay. Let us commence fighting!"
Lame.
Anyway, the game ended with that 3-2 score, but there was a little bit more tension in the dying seconds. Sergei Samsonov, of all people, threw a punch after he grew tired of being slashed by Nick Schultz down in the corners. Nothing came of that, and with just four seconds remaining, both players were sent to their locker rooms rather than the penalty box.
The "official" three stars and the RBH three stars are the same:
THIRD STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 2 assists
SECOND STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist, 75% (12/16) faceoffs
FIRST STAR Erik Cole, CAR --- GWG
It should not be ignored that Tuomo Ruutu dished out five hits. At least one of them was of the "big" variety.
Also, it should be noted that Patrick Eaves looked good again. He's playing well and clicking with his linemates.
On Saturday, Carolina will face the hungry Sabres. After a loss against Washington on Wednesday, the Sabres are on the outside of the playoff bubble looking in. They have suffered a bunch of injuries lately, plus the subtraction of Brian Campbell from the blue line. This is crunch time, and they need the win. It's always a big game when the Sabres come to town. These two teams just don't get along very well, so both will be "bringing it".
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Carolina wins big, gets no help from Buffalo
On Wednesday, the Hurricanes took care of things on their own end, beating Atlanta 6-3. They were hoping for some help from the Sabres, but got none as the Capitals took a 3-1 win there.
Like they have done so many times during their hot streak, Carolina surrendered the game's first goal. They responded by scoring the next four, then trading goals with the Thrashers until the final score was 6-3.
In front of a very sparse crowd that was generously counted as 13,032, Chris Thorburn got the Thrashers on the board at 4:21 with a wrist shot from the low in the left circle. Bobby Holik and Ilya Kovalchuk assisted on the play.
At 8:12, the Canes tied it. From the inside hashmarks of the left circle, Scott Walker re-directed a Frantisek Kaberle shot from the left point. Ryan Bayda was down in the goal mouth creating traffic, and was initially given credit for the goal, but it was later changed. Walker from Kaberle and Keith Aucoin at 9:12.
Bayda ended up getting on the scoreboard at 19:06 when he one-timed a shot from the right dot. Scott Walker got the only assist.
The first period ended with a Canes power play, which would carry over to the second.
The Hurricanes didn't need much time with the fresh sheet of ice to cash in on the power play. Just 27 seconds into the second frame, big Joe Corvo finished a pretty play, tapping one in from the right dot, making the score 3-1. The play was beautifully set up with a crisp pass from Sergei Samsonov in the left circle. Matt Cullen got the secondary assist.
After this, things got a little crazy. At around the 10:00 mark of the second period, Carolina appeared to have scored a crazy lucky bounce, as the puck went in from well beyond center ice. However, the "goal" was immediately waved off because the crazy bounce that it took was off the referee's skate. No goal can be scored directly off the referee.
Just a short time later, the Hurricanes got a goal that counted. As the Canes entered the Thrashers zone on a three-on-two break, Eric Staal dropped a pass for Erik Cole at the top of the left circle. Cole made no mistake, giving Carolina a 4-1 lead at 10:39. The secondary assist went to Kaberle. That would be the end of Kari Lehtonen's night. It also ended up being the game winner.
There was more crazy stuff with the officials. Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason got tangled up with a linesman along the dasher, causing a neutral ice turnover. Erik Christensen carried it in alone and beat Ward easily with an unassisted goal at 17:09 of the second.
There was even more crazy stuff with the officials. Early in the third period, while the Canes were applying a lot of pressure deep in the Thrashers' zone, Garnet Exelby carried the puck over to Johan Hedberg, hoping he would cover the puck and get a whistle. The refs wouldn't give a whistle and forced Hedberg to play the puck. The Thrashers never got the puck out of the zone and Carolina scored a really crazy goal about 30 seconds later. Eric Staal attempted a wrap from behind the goal. The puck went off Exelby's stick, off his helmet, then off Hedberg's helmet and behind him into the goal. A very improbable goal that may have been aided by the non-whistle. Officially, Staal from Cole and Trevor Letowski at 3:41 of the third.
Don Waddell flipped a lid. His face was about as red as the Hurricanes' pants. There was steam coming out of his ears. I actually thought he might either punch referee Mike Hasenfratz or have a heart attack. He screamed and stomped and carried on for a good two minutes without being reprimanded. Hasenfratz gave his explanation of why there was no whistle, but we never heard it.
The Thrashers weren't ready to quit. At 12:17 of the third, Kovalchuk redirected a Ken Klee shot to make the score 5-3. Klee and Alex Zhitnik had the helpers.
In the waning minutes, Atlanta had a hard time getting the puck deep enough to pull Hedberg. Just when they did, but before he could make it all the way to the bench, Eric Staal scored into the empty net with a long bomb from the referee's crease. Kaberle got the only assist.
For just a minute, Carolina had stretched their SE lead to five points. However, Washington beat the Sabres 3-1, which means their lead remains three points. Washington has a game in hand.
The "official" three stars were Erik Cole (third), Scott Walker (second) and Eric Staal (first). On TV, they went to Ryan Bayda (third), Scott Walker (second) and Frantisek Kaberle (first). The RBH stars are a bit different.
THIRD STAR Frantisek Kaberle, CAR --- 3 assists, +3
SECOND STAR Erik Cole, CAR --- GWG, assist
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist
Carolina will come back home to face the Northwest leading Wild Thursday, then the Sabres on Saturday.
Like they have done so many times during their hot streak, Carolina surrendered the game's first goal. They responded by scoring the next four, then trading goals with the Thrashers until the final score was 6-3.
In front of a very sparse crowd that was generously counted as 13,032, Chris Thorburn got the Thrashers on the board at 4:21 with a wrist shot from the low in the left circle. Bobby Holik and Ilya Kovalchuk assisted on the play.
At 8:12, the Canes tied it. From the inside hashmarks of the left circle, Scott Walker re-directed a Frantisek Kaberle shot from the left point. Ryan Bayda was down in the goal mouth creating traffic, and was initially given credit for the goal, but it was later changed. Walker from Kaberle and Keith Aucoin at 9:12.
Bayda ended up getting on the scoreboard at 19:06 when he one-timed a shot from the right dot. Scott Walker got the only assist.
The first period ended with a Canes power play, which would carry over to the second.
The Hurricanes didn't need much time with the fresh sheet of ice to cash in on the power play. Just 27 seconds into the second frame, big Joe Corvo finished a pretty play, tapping one in from the right dot, making the score 3-1. The play was beautifully set up with a crisp pass from Sergei Samsonov in the left circle. Matt Cullen got the secondary assist.
After this, things got a little crazy. At around the 10:00 mark of the second period, Carolina appeared to have scored a crazy lucky bounce, as the puck went in from well beyond center ice. However, the "goal" was immediately waved off because the crazy bounce that it took was off the referee's skate. No goal can be scored directly off the referee.
Just a short time later, the Hurricanes got a goal that counted. As the Canes entered the Thrashers zone on a three-on-two break, Eric Staal dropped a pass for Erik Cole at the top of the left circle. Cole made no mistake, giving Carolina a 4-1 lead at 10:39. The secondary assist went to Kaberle. That would be the end of Kari Lehtonen's night. It also ended up being the game winner.
There was more crazy stuff with the officials. Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason got tangled up with a linesman along the dasher, causing a neutral ice turnover. Erik Christensen carried it in alone and beat Ward easily with an unassisted goal at 17:09 of the second.
There was even more crazy stuff with the officials. Early in the third period, while the Canes were applying a lot of pressure deep in the Thrashers' zone, Garnet Exelby carried the puck over to Johan Hedberg, hoping he would cover the puck and get a whistle. The refs wouldn't give a whistle and forced Hedberg to play the puck. The Thrashers never got the puck out of the zone and Carolina scored a really crazy goal about 30 seconds later. Eric Staal attempted a wrap from behind the goal. The puck went off Exelby's stick, off his helmet, then off Hedberg's helmet and behind him into the goal. A very improbable goal that may have been aided by the non-whistle. Officially, Staal from Cole and Trevor Letowski at 3:41 of the third.
Don Waddell flipped a lid. His face was about as red as the Hurricanes' pants. There was steam coming out of his ears. I actually thought he might either punch referee Mike Hasenfratz or have a heart attack. He screamed and stomped and carried on for a good two minutes without being reprimanded. Hasenfratz gave his explanation of why there was no whistle, but we never heard it.
The Thrashers weren't ready to quit. At 12:17 of the third, Kovalchuk redirected a Ken Klee shot to make the score 5-3. Klee and Alex Zhitnik had the helpers.
In the waning minutes, Atlanta had a hard time getting the puck deep enough to pull Hedberg. Just when they did, but before he could make it all the way to the bench, Eric Staal scored into the empty net with a long bomb from the referee's crease. Kaberle got the only assist.
For just a minute, Carolina had stretched their SE lead to five points. However, Washington beat the Sabres 3-1, which means their lead remains three points. Washington has a game in hand.
The "official" three stars were Erik Cole (third), Scott Walker (second) and Eric Staal (first). On TV, they went to Ryan Bayda (third), Scott Walker (second) and Frantisek Kaberle (first). The RBH stars are a bit different.
THIRD STAR Frantisek Kaberle, CAR --- 3 assists, +3
SECOND STAR Erik Cole, CAR --- GWG, assist
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist
Carolina will come back home to face the Northwest leading Wild Thursday, then the Sabres on Saturday.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Canes trounce Bolts, widen lead
On Saturday, the Hurricanes soundly defeated the Lightning 5-1. With the help of the Maple Leafs, they were able to expand their lead in the Southeast division to five points. Carolina has 14 games to play. Washington has two games in hand and two more games against Carolina. All four of those games are "must win" games for Bruce Boudreau's team.
Carolina got a tremendous team effort to close out the six-game homestand. In those six games, Carolina went 4-1-1. In their last ten games at the big ATM, Carolina has been a very impressive 8-1-1. This will hopefully extend through the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Carolina is poised to win their division and have home-ice advantage, and their recent success at home should be a tremendous advantage.
The most impressive thing about the "total effort" was that every single one of the "new guys" played a huge part in the win.
The scoring started with a "soft" goal given up by Cam Ward. Jeff Halpern tapped in some loose change in front of the goal through Ward's five hole at 7:04 of the first. Michel Ouellet and Mathieu Darche got the assists.
Eric Staal got the equalizer at 10:43. He fought hard for a loose puck in front of the goal, and it looked like he batted the loose puck out of midair to tie the game. Tuomo Ruutu and Timmaaay Gleason got the assists. Time of the goal was 10:43 of the first.
The first period ended with a Carolina power play, which extended for one minute into the second frame. One second after the expiration, Big Joe Corvo had all the time in the world to shoot a howitzer from the high slot, which beat Mike Smith (still wearing a Dallas Stars helmet) high on the blocker side. In what has become somewhat of a recurring theme, the goal was scored while one of the opponents was playing without a stick. This goal came at 1:02 of the second, assisted by Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal. This one would prove to be the game winner.
Sergei Samsonov scored a power play marker at 10:01, assisted by Frantisek Kaberle and Scott Walker. From the top of the left circle, his one-timer beat Smith cleanly for the 3-1 lead.
Samsonov scored his second goal of the night at 4:02 of the third on a nice backhanded tap-in. Patrick Eaves had a very nice chance that was stopped, but Samsonov jumped on the rebound and slammed it home. Matt Cullen got the secondary assist, but this whole play was set up by Samsonov, streaking down the right wing.
Ruutu got his first goal in a Hurricanes sweater at 6:00 of the third by finishing a gorgeous tic-tac-toe play on the left side of the goal mouth. Eric Staal and Erik Cole had the assists. And the crowd chanted "Ruuty! Ruuty! Ruuty!"
It's really nice to see the fans take such a shine to the new guys. Even when Doug Weight and Mark Recchi were brought in during the year of the Cup, we weren't so quick to embrace them. Last year, the Anson Carter thing was a fiasco. Before that, Carolina was always a seller at the trade deadline.
Sergei Samsonov has been far and away the best of the "new guys", and was probably the GM move of the year, league wide. In 24 games with the Canes, he has registered 21 (11/10) points. All that after he scored just four (0/4) points in 23 games with Chicago.
Joe Corvo has also played well since joining the Canes. He's put up six points (2/4) in nine games with Carolina. We're still one game shy of the standard "let's wait ten games to see how we like him", but I'll go ahead and say that we'd rather have Corvo than Commodore any day of the week. And Twice on Sundays.
The other part of that deal, Patty Eaves, hasn't had much time, but he's looked good. He's only played in three games, but has registered two assists, and came very close to scoring a goal in this game.
Ruuty has three (1/2) points in three games. His counterpart in the trade, Andrew Ladd, has also performed well with his new team. Ladd has two goals in three games played for the Blackhawks.
For this game, it was another one where you could pick any three guys as the stars. Except Bret Hedican. He made a boneheaded pass in his own end which led to the lone Bolts goal.
The "official" stars went to Joe Corvo (third), Eric Staal (second) and Sergei Samsonov (first). Mine were only slightly different. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Tuomo Ruutu, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 1 goal, 2 assists, +3
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist
Carolina will be off until Wednesday. In the interim, Washington will expend one of their two games in hand when they play host to the hot Bruins, who are currently in the sixth playoff spot and would be Carolina's first round opponent.
Carolina got a tremendous team effort to close out the six-game homestand. In those six games, Carolina went 4-1-1. In their last ten games at the big ATM, Carolina has been a very impressive 8-1-1. This will hopefully extend through the rest of the season and into the playoffs. Carolina is poised to win their division and have home-ice advantage, and their recent success at home should be a tremendous advantage.
The most impressive thing about the "total effort" was that every single one of the "new guys" played a huge part in the win.
The scoring started with a "soft" goal given up by Cam Ward. Jeff Halpern tapped in some loose change in front of the goal through Ward's five hole at 7:04 of the first. Michel Ouellet and Mathieu Darche got the assists.
Eric Staal got the equalizer at 10:43. He fought hard for a loose puck in front of the goal, and it looked like he batted the loose puck out of midair to tie the game. Tuomo Ruutu and Timmaaay Gleason got the assists. Time of the goal was 10:43 of the first.
The first period ended with a Carolina power play, which extended for one minute into the second frame. One second after the expiration, Big Joe Corvo had all the time in the world to shoot a howitzer from the high slot, which beat Mike Smith (still wearing a Dallas Stars helmet) high on the blocker side. In what has become somewhat of a recurring theme, the goal was scored while one of the opponents was playing without a stick. This goal came at 1:02 of the second, assisted by Sergei Samsonov and Eric Staal. This one would prove to be the game winner.
Sergei Samsonov scored a power play marker at 10:01, assisted by Frantisek Kaberle and Scott Walker. From the top of the left circle, his one-timer beat Smith cleanly for the 3-1 lead.
Samsonov scored his second goal of the night at 4:02 of the third on a nice backhanded tap-in. Patrick Eaves had a very nice chance that was stopped, but Samsonov jumped on the rebound and slammed it home. Matt Cullen got the secondary assist, but this whole play was set up by Samsonov, streaking down the right wing.
Ruutu got his first goal in a Hurricanes sweater at 6:00 of the third by finishing a gorgeous tic-tac-toe play on the left side of the goal mouth. Eric Staal and Erik Cole had the assists. And the crowd chanted "Ruuty! Ruuty! Ruuty!"
It's really nice to see the fans take such a shine to the new guys. Even when Doug Weight and Mark Recchi were brought in during the year of the Cup, we weren't so quick to embrace them. Last year, the Anson Carter thing was a fiasco. Before that, Carolina was always a seller at the trade deadline.
Sergei Samsonov has been far and away the best of the "new guys", and was probably the GM move of the year, league wide. In 24 games with the Canes, he has registered 21 (11/10) points. All that after he scored just four (0/4) points in 23 games with Chicago.
Joe Corvo has also played well since joining the Canes. He's put up six points (2/4) in nine games with Carolina. We're still one game shy of the standard "let's wait ten games to see how we like him", but I'll go ahead and say that we'd rather have Corvo than Commodore any day of the week. And Twice on Sundays.
The other part of that deal, Patty Eaves, hasn't had much time, but he's looked good. He's only played in three games, but has registered two assists, and came very close to scoring a goal in this game.
Ruuty has three (1/2) points in three games. His counterpart in the trade, Andrew Ladd, has also performed well with his new team. Ladd has two goals in three games played for the Blackhawks.
For this game, it was another one where you could pick any three guys as the stars. Except Bret Hedican. He made a boneheaded pass in his own end which led to the lone Bolts goal.
The "official" stars went to Joe Corvo (third), Eric Staal (second) and Sergei Samsonov (first). Mine were only slightly different. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Tuomo Ruutu, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 1 goal, 2 assists, +3
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist
Carolina will be off until Wednesday. In the interim, Washington will expend one of their two games in hand when they play host to the hot Bruins, who are currently in the sixth playoff spot and would be Carolina's first round opponent.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Carolina solves Brodeur, keeps hot streak going.
On Tuesday night, Carolina defeated New Jersey 2-1 in overtime to get a much needed two standings points. This was a huge test for a team playing without its Captain for the rest of the season. Carolina answered the challenge and then some.
Earlier this month, Carolina lost two ugly games in Newark. They also lost an ugly game at home to the Devils in January. In all, the Canes were 0-3 against the Devils and were outscored 15-3. Carolina was trying to avoid the sweep. They were also trying to protect their five point SE lead. They were also trying to continue their hot streak at home, and their hot streak overall. They accomplished all of that.
Carolina's newest member, Tuomu Ruutu nearly didn't make it. After being traded for Andrew Ladd, Ruutu's flight from Chicago to Raleigh was delayed for several hours. His flight finally landed 36 minutes before gametime. He was given a police escort to the arena, and he was dressed in time for the puck drop.
Right away, he made a mark. He delivered a huge hit in just his second shift. The rest of the first period was chippy. Defenseman Tim Gleason left the game with a "head injury" after being boarded. A scuffle ensued, then later in the period a fight and some other extracurricular activity.
Afer a scoreless first, Bret Hedican got the second period off on the wrong foot. Just as he did against Washington on Saturday, a committed a miscue which led directly to a goal. This time, he deflected a Brian Gionta shot into his own net. Gionta was given credit for an unassisted goal at 1:50 of the second. His "shot" from the right circle would have been well off net, but Hedican's stick redirected it off the left post and in.
Sergei Samsonov leveled the score at 5:57 with a power play goal. After some good stuff at the points from Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo, Keith Aucoin snuck down low and took a shot from the right dot, which was handled by Martin Brodeur. Samsonov jumped right on the rebound and wristed it in from the top of the goalie crease. Ruutu got the secondary assist. His first point in his first game with the Canes.
The rest of the second was a defensive battle, and the third was more of the same.
Ruutu was caught by an inadvertant high stick late in the third, which opened a cut above his nose. If it had been detected by the officials, it would have been a four minute minor. However,it wasn't. Credit the officiating crew for refusing to give a "make-up" call. I'm not, and never have been a fan of that.
The game went into overtime, and the Canes knew that at the very least, they would get one standings point.
Just 1:36 into the bonus frame, Samsonov struck again. He accepted an awkward bank pass from Scott Walker along the right wing, handled the bouncing puck and took a shot on Brodeur. The shot was handled, but the rebound was not. Samsonov tapped it into the left corner for the win. Walker and Hedican got the helpers.
Samsonov was, and continues to be amazing. He's now got five (3/2) points in his last three games. In 22 games with Carolina, he has 18 (9/9) points. He earned the first star.
The "official" and the RBH three stars are identical:
THIRD STAR Tuomo Ruutu, CAR --- 1 assist, 3 hits, 2 blocked shots, 2 takeaways
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR --- win, 23 saves
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR --- 2 goals, GWG, 2 takeaways
Washington got ahead early and won their game, which put pressure on Carolina. The big win for Carolina does so many things, but the most important is that it helps them maintain a five point cushion in the SE division with just 16 games to play.
This was the fourth of six straight home games for Carolina. They have gone 3-0-1 in those games. They have gone 7-0-1 in their last eight home games, and they have gone 7-2-1 in their last ten games overall. Right now, they are a flaming hot team. Included in that is the 5-1-1 they have gone since Captain Rod Brind'Amour tore his ACL.
The Canes will take on the Rangers on Thursday, then will finish the homestand against the new-look Lightning on Saturday.
On March 12, there will be a special treat when Carolina visits Chicago. By then, Kevyn Adams is expected to be back in the Blackhawks lineup. If all goes well, the former Canes Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams and Andrew Ladd will be in the lineup. They might even be on the same line.
Earlier this month, Carolina lost two ugly games in Newark. They also lost an ugly game at home to the Devils in January. In all, the Canes were 0-3 against the Devils and were outscored 15-3. Carolina was trying to avoid the sweep. They were also trying to protect their five point SE lead. They were also trying to continue their hot streak at home, and their hot streak overall. They accomplished all of that.
Carolina's newest member, Tuomu Ruutu nearly didn't make it. After being traded for Andrew Ladd, Ruutu's flight from Chicago to Raleigh was delayed for several hours. His flight finally landed 36 minutes before gametime. He was given a police escort to the arena, and he was dressed in time for the puck drop.
Right away, he made a mark. He delivered a huge hit in just his second shift. The rest of the first period was chippy. Defenseman Tim Gleason left the game with a "head injury" after being boarded. A scuffle ensued, then later in the period a fight and some other extracurricular activity.
Afer a scoreless first, Bret Hedican got the second period off on the wrong foot. Just as he did against Washington on Saturday, a committed a miscue which led directly to a goal. This time, he deflected a Brian Gionta shot into his own net. Gionta was given credit for an unassisted goal at 1:50 of the second. His "shot" from the right circle would have been well off net, but Hedican's stick redirected it off the left post and in.
Sergei Samsonov leveled the score at 5:57 with a power play goal. After some good stuff at the points from Matt Cullen and Joe Corvo, Keith Aucoin snuck down low and took a shot from the right dot, which was handled by Martin Brodeur. Samsonov jumped right on the rebound and wristed it in from the top of the goalie crease. Ruutu got the secondary assist. His first point in his first game with the Canes.
The rest of the second was a defensive battle, and the third was more of the same.
Ruutu was caught by an inadvertant high stick late in the third, which opened a cut above his nose. If it had been detected by the officials, it would have been a four minute minor. However,it wasn't. Credit the officiating crew for refusing to give a "make-up" call. I'm not, and never have been a fan of that.
The game went into overtime, and the Canes knew that at the very least, they would get one standings point.
Just 1:36 into the bonus frame, Samsonov struck again. He accepted an awkward bank pass from Scott Walker along the right wing, handled the bouncing puck and took a shot on Brodeur. The shot was handled, but the rebound was not. Samsonov tapped it into the left corner for the win. Walker and Hedican got the helpers.
Samsonov was, and continues to be amazing. He's now got five (3/2) points in his last three games. In 22 games with Carolina, he has 18 (9/9) points. He earned the first star.
The "official" and the RBH three stars are identical:
THIRD STAR Tuomo Ruutu, CAR --- 1 assist, 3 hits, 2 blocked shots, 2 takeaways
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR --- win, 23 saves
FIRST STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR --- 2 goals, GWG, 2 takeaways
Washington got ahead early and won their game, which put pressure on Carolina. The big win for Carolina does so many things, but the most important is that it helps them maintain a five point cushion in the SE division with just 16 games to play.
This was the fourth of six straight home games for Carolina. They have gone 3-0-1 in those games. They have gone 7-0-1 in their last eight home games, and they have gone 7-2-1 in their last ten games overall. Right now, they are a flaming hot team. Included in that is the 5-1-1 they have gone since Captain Rod Brind'Amour tore his ACL.
The Canes will take on the Rangers on Thursday, then will finish the homestand against the new-look Lightning on Saturday.
On March 12, there will be a special treat when Carolina visits Chicago. By then, Kevyn Adams is expected to be back in the Blackhawks lineup. If all goes well, the former Canes Kevyn Adams, Craig Adams and Andrew Ladd will be in the lineup. They might even be on the same line.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Canes crush Caps, widen lead
On Saturday afternoon, the Hurricanes handily defeated the visiting Capitals in what had been dubbed their "biggest game of the season". The "four point swing" game, coupled with a loss by Atlanta means that Carolina has some breathing room at the top of the Southeast division.
Earlier in the day, I wrote about how Alex Ovechkin has been quiet for the last three games. He wasn't quiet today. He notched three points, all assists, bringing his season total to 81 (48/33) points. Against the Canes, he has nine (5/4) in six games.
If a time traveler had told me that #8 would have a huge game tonight, I would naturally have assumed that he meant Alex Ovechkin. Without a doubt, Ovie had a big game. However, he wasn't the #8 who really shone tonight.
Matt Cullen notched two goals and an assist for the Hurricanes to bring his season total t0 43 (11/32) in 49 games played. His heroics earned him the first star of the game.
For the first ten minutes of the first period, Carolina looked flat. Washington came out jumping, and the shot totals were 11-1 in the opening minutes. The puck stayed in Carolina's end for almost the entire time. Thankfully, the Hurricanes snapped to it and got their "A" game going.
Mike Green got the visitors on the board at 6:06 of the first after Bret Hedican made a horrible defensive play in his own end, leading to a 2-on-1. Ovechkin had the only assist.
At 13:30, Carolina scored their first of four (!) power play goals. Matt Cullen fired a shot from the high slot, beating Kolzig. During the power play sequence, one of the Caps defensemen broke his stick and also blocked a shot with his ankle. It was virtually a five-on-three. Ray Whitney and big Joe Corvo got the helpers.
Alex Semin gave the Caps their second lead of the night at 16:13 on a power play, firing one top shelf from the high slot. Ovechkin, who had been knocked off his pegs by Eric Staal, and Tomas Fleischmann assisted.
3:43 into the second period, the Hurricanes tied it again on another power play goal. Joe Corvo's shot from the left circle was blockered down by Kolzig, but the rebound was too juicy. Cullen jumped on it at the left inside hash marks for his second marker of the game.Corvo and Ray WhitneyErik Cole and Corvo got the assists.
Carolina notched yet another power play goal at 5:56 to take the lead. Briefly. Ray Whitney's shot from the top of the left circle was blocked, but the big rebound was hacked at by Staal, then Cole. Staal and Whitney got the assists, but Matt Cullen deserves a tertiary assist. Seconds before the Whitney shot, Cullen made a sprawling move to prevent a Caps clearing attempt. He kept it in the zone, rotated it over to Corvo, then the Whitney shot.
At 8:47, the Caps knotted the score again when Brooks Laich beat Cam Ward with a wrister from the high slot. Ovechkin and Green assisted on the power play goal.
Eric Staal put the Canes back in front at 16:39. He jumped on a loose puck at the bottom of the left circle and shoved it in for what turned out to be the game winner.Tim Conboy and Andrew Ladd Sergei Samsonov and Tim Conboy got the assists on the even-strength goal. That goal gives Staal 30 for the season.
Andrew Ladd cleaned up some loose change at 3:50 of the third for his ninth goal of the season. Tim Conboy's shot from above the right circle was stopped by Kolzig, but Ladd was parked by the right post to shove in the rebound from point blank range. Conboy and Samsonov got the helpers.
Finally, Joe Corvo scored a power play goal at 7:44 of the final frame. It came on the front end of a high-sticking double minor. Corvo came out of nowhere to pounce on the rebound of Eric Staal's left circle shot. It was Corvo's third point of the night and his first goal in a Hurricanes sweater. He now has 32 (7/25) points on the season. Of those, five (1/4) have come in the six games he's played with Carolina.
Originally, Ray Whitney was credited for three assists, but later the scoring was changed so that he had two. Also, Andrew Ladd lost two assists in the shuffle. He went from a three (1/2) point night and being an "also ran", to having a one goal night.
I had named Whitney as one of my stars, but the scoring changes sort of rained on that. Tim Gleason didn't have any scoring points and ended up as a -1, but he should be given some love for his outstanding play in his own end. Five blocked shots!
On any other day, I would have no problem giving the third star to Alex Ovechkin. Three assists is a very good night. However, three Hurricanes players had three points apiece, and since they won the game, they got the official and the RBH stars.
THIRD STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- GWG, 2 assists, 3 hits
SECOND STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 takeaways, 2 blocked shots
FIRST STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist, 11/12 (92%) faceoff wins
Carolina has three games left on this homestand and 10 of their remaining 17 games are in the friendly confines. They have been a very dangerous team at home, going 6-0-1 in their last seven. They will be seriously tested on Tuesday when Martin Brodeur and the Devils come to town.
Patrick Eaves was rumored to have been slated for insertion in the lineup for this game. He did not play. He didn't practice on Friday and isn't ready yet. In post-game interviews, coach Peter Laviolette denied ever having said that Eaves would be ready. There is still no word on when he'll play.
Glen Wesley was injured in the first period and didn't return. There's no word on the type or severity of the injury. Just that he didn't feel right.
In other division news, Atlanta lost to Toronto. As if it wasn't already certain enough, I'd say that the loss will push Don Waddell's hand to deal Maid Marian Hossa to a contender.
There should be some exciting moves in and out of the SE division. There's still a chance that Carolina is a buyer, especially in light of Rod Brind'Amour's injury. The biggest moves, though, will be Marian Hossa out of Atlanta and Vaclav Prospal out of Tampa. The clock is ticking.
Earlier in the day, I wrote about how Alex Ovechkin has been quiet for the last three games. He wasn't quiet today. He notched three points, all assists, bringing his season total to 81 (48/33) points. Against the Canes, he has nine (5/4) in six games.
If a time traveler had told me that #8 would have a huge game tonight, I would naturally have assumed that he meant Alex Ovechkin. Without a doubt, Ovie had a big game. However, he wasn't the #8 who really shone tonight.
Matt Cullen notched two goals and an assist for the Hurricanes to bring his season total t0 43 (11/32) in 49 games played. His heroics earned him the first star of the game.
For the first ten minutes of the first period, Carolina looked flat. Washington came out jumping, and the shot totals were 11-1 in the opening minutes. The puck stayed in Carolina's end for almost the entire time. Thankfully, the Hurricanes snapped to it and got their "A" game going.
Mike Green got the visitors on the board at 6:06 of the first after Bret Hedican made a horrible defensive play in his own end, leading to a 2-on-1. Ovechkin had the only assist.
At 13:30, Carolina scored their first of four (!) power play goals. Matt Cullen fired a shot from the high slot, beating Kolzig. During the power play sequence, one of the Caps defensemen broke his stick and also blocked a shot with his ankle. It was virtually a five-on-three. Ray Whitney and big Joe Corvo got the helpers.
Alex Semin gave the Caps their second lead of the night at 16:13 on a power play, firing one top shelf from the high slot. Ovechkin, who had been knocked off his pegs by Eric Staal, and Tomas Fleischmann assisted.
3:43 into the second period, the Hurricanes tied it again on another power play goal. Joe Corvo's shot from the left circle was blockered down by Kolzig, but the rebound was too juicy. Cullen jumped on it at the left inside hash marks for his second marker of the game.
Carolina notched yet another power play goal at 5:56 to take the lead. Briefly. Ray Whitney's shot from the top of the left circle was blocked, but the big rebound was hacked at by Staal, then Cole. Staal and Whitney got the assists, but Matt Cullen deserves a tertiary assist. Seconds before the Whitney shot, Cullen made a sprawling move to prevent a Caps clearing attempt. He kept it in the zone, rotated it over to Corvo, then the Whitney shot.
At 8:47, the Caps knotted the score again when Brooks Laich beat Cam Ward with a wrister from the high slot. Ovechkin and Green assisted on the power play goal.
Eric Staal put the Canes back in front at 16:39. He jumped on a loose puck at the bottom of the left circle and shoved it in for what turned out to be the game winner.
Andrew Ladd cleaned up some loose change at 3:50 of the third for his ninth goal of the season. Tim Conboy's shot from above the right circle was stopped by Kolzig, but Ladd was parked by the right post to shove in the rebound from point blank range. Conboy and Samsonov got the helpers.
Finally, Joe Corvo scored a power play goal at 7:44 of the final frame. It came on the front end of a high-sticking double minor. Corvo came out of nowhere to pounce on the rebound of Eric Staal's left circle shot. It was Corvo's third point of the night and his first goal in a Hurricanes sweater. He now has 32 (7/25) points on the season. Of those, five (1/4) have come in the six games he's played with Carolina.
Originally, Ray Whitney was credited for three assists, but later the scoring was changed so that he had two. Also, Andrew Ladd lost two assists in the shuffle. He went from a three (1/2) point night and being an "also ran", to having a one goal night.
I had named Whitney as one of my stars, but the scoring changes sort of rained on that. Tim Gleason didn't have any scoring points and ended up as a -1, but he should be given some love for his outstanding play in his own end. Five blocked shots!
On any other day, I would have no problem giving the third star to Alex Ovechkin. Three assists is a very good night. However, three Hurricanes players had three points apiece, and since they won the game, they got the official and the RBH stars.
THIRD STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- GWG, 2 assists, 3 hits
SECOND STAR Joe Corvo, CAR --- 1 goal, 2 assists, 3 takeaways, 2 blocked shots
FIRST STAR Matt Cullen, CAR --- 2 goals, 1 assist, 11/12 (92%) faceoff wins
Carolina has three games left on this homestand and 10 of their remaining 17 games are in the friendly confines. They have been a very dangerous team at home, going 6-0-1 in their last seven. They will be seriously tested on Tuesday when Martin Brodeur and the Devils come to town.
Patrick Eaves was rumored to have been slated for insertion in the lineup for this game. He did not play. He didn't practice on Friday and isn't ready yet. In post-game interviews, coach Peter Laviolette denied ever having said that Eaves would be ready. There is still no word on when he'll play.
Glen Wesley was injured in the first period and didn't return. There's no word on the type or severity of the injury. Just that he didn't feel right.
In other division news, Atlanta lost to Toronto. As if it wasn't already certain enough, I'd say that the loss will push Don Waddell's hand to deal Maid Marian Hossa to a contender.
There should be some exciting moves in and out of the SE division. There's still a chance that Carolina is a buyer, especially in light of Rod Brind'Amour's injury. The biggest moves, though, will be Marian Hossa out of Atlanta and Vaclav Prospal out of Tampa. The clock is ticking.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Carolina wins big game, Laviolette passes Brooks
On Thursday, the Hurricanes defeated the listless Thrashers 5-3 to widen their lead in the SE division. Atlanta came out as flat as they were when they played that awful game on Long Island. Carolina got a very well rounded game, getting goals from five different players.
Sergei Samsonov got the memo about the rules change concerning kicked pucks. His goal in the second period might have been disallowed under the old "distinct kicking motion" criteria, but was allowed under the new rule.
Scott Walker had a huge game, registering the game winning goal and two assists. Ray Whitney, Ryan Bayda and Keith Aucoin had the other goals.
With the win, Peter Laviolette has 220 NHL coaching victories, which allows him to pass the late Herb Brooks on the list of coaching wins by US-born coaches.
Speaking of Herb Brooks, today (February 22) is the 28th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. Let's all take off our hats in honor of that.
Carolina will have another huge game on Saturday against Washington, with a chance to really distance themselves from the pelloton. All indications are that the Hurricanes will have Patrick Eaves in the lineup for the first time on Saturday.
Sergei Samsonov got the memo about the rules change concerning kicked pucks. His goal in the second period might have been disallowed under the old "distinct kicking motion" criteria, but was allowed under the new rule.
Scott Walker had a huge game, registering the game winning goal and two assists. Ray Whitney, Ryan Bayda and Keith Aucoin had the other goals.
With the win, Peter Laviolette has 220 NHL coaching victories, which allows him to pass the late Herb Brooks on the list of coaching wins by US-born coaches.
Speaking of Herb Brooks, today (February 22) is the 28th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. Let's all take off our hats in honor of that.
Carolina will have another huge game on Saturday against Washington, with a chance to really distance themselves from the pelloton. All indications are that the Hurricanes will have Patrick Eaves in the lineup for the first time on Saturday.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Hurricanes snatch consolation point from the jaws of shutout
On Tuesday night, the Hurricanes were on the brink of being shut out by the visiting Bruins, but managed to earn a standings point.
For the entire game, Boston had just a little more jump than the Canes and carried a 2-0 lead into the final 70 seconds of play. Zdeno Chara scored at 4:51 of the first on a power play goal assisted by Marco Sturm and Marc Savard. From below the right circle, Sturm centered a pass that Chara got the re-direction on. A moment later, Thomas made a dazzling save on a Ray Whitney breakaway, and the tone was set.
The tone was also set by some fighting and other rough stuff in the early going.
Tensions eased in the second period, but the Bruins made it 2-0 on a Savard power play goal from the top of the right circle at 14:28. Dennis Wideman and Andrew Ference assisted.
In the third period, Andrew Ference and Scott Walker took back-to-back matching penalties after exchanging recipes with each other. While they were in the adjacent penalty boxes, they probably discussed everything from Russian literature to deep sea fishing.
In a scene that was reminiscent of the December 18 game against Toronto, the Hurricanes scored two very quick goals with the goalie pulled.
Ray Whitney got the first at 18:57 of the third when he took a pass from Andrew Ladd in the left circle. Eric Staal got the secondary assist.
Erik Cole electrified the crowd just 20 seconds later with a goal from the same spot Eric Staal had a nice wrap chance that was denied by Thomas at the right post, but Cole tucked in the rebound.
Cole had a wonderful chance to win in the overtime period, but couldn't make it happen.
In the shootout, two Bruins scored while the first two Canes came up empty. In the first round, Sturm missed wide left and Matt Cullen hit the left post. In the second round, Phil Kessel scored five hole and Sergei Samsonov's backhand shot was saved by Thomas. David Krejci scored glove side, and the bottom of the third wasn't necessary.
Carolina can be happy that they persevered and got a point out of nothing. For the second time in the last three games, they have rallied from two goals down in the third. This should be a confidence builder for a team that seriously needs any boost they can get.
Ryan Bayda, Bret Hedican and Erik Cole were all "questionable", but all played. Jeff Hamilton did not play. Defenseman Tim Conboy played on the fourth forward line in his stead, but only got four shifts.
Peter Laviolette has apparently told the team not to come to the rink at all tomorrow. The locker room will be closed. They need to stay home, rest up and be ready to play Atlanta on Thursday night.
By getting the one standings point, Carolina widened their lead in the SE to three points over Atlanta and Washington. Atlanta will be idle on Wednesday while the Capitals will be at home against the Islanders.
The "official" three stars went to Ray Whitney (third), Tim Thomas (second) and Marc Savard (first). I have it a little differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Anrew Ference, BOS --- 1 assist, 4 blocked shots
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 2 assists, 3 takeaways, 3 hits
FIRST STAR Tim Thomas, BOS --- 45 saves, win
Staal was very impressive in taking control of the game in the clutch situation, assisting both goals. This is exactly what the Hurricanes need from him now that Rod Brind'Amour is out for the season. This is his dress rehearsal for the day when the C becomes his.
For the entire game, Boston had just a little more jump than the Canes and carried a 2-0 lead into the final 70 seconds of play. Zdeno Chara scored at 4:51 of the first on a power play goal assisted by Marco Sturm and Marc Savard. From below the right circle, Sturm centered a pass that Chara got the re-direction on. A moment later, Thomas made a dazzling save on a Ray Whitney breakaway, and the tone was set.
The tone was also set by some fighting and other rough stuff in the early going.
Tensions eased in the second period, but the Bruins made it 2-0 on a Savard power play goal from the top of the right circle at 14:28. Dennis Wideman and Andrew Ference assisted.
In the third period, Andrew Ference and Scott Walker took back-to-back matching penalties after exchanging recipes with each other. While they were in the adjacent penalty boxes, they probably discussed everything from Russian literature to deep sea fishing.
In a scene that was reminiscent of the December 18 game against Toronto, the Hurricanes scored two very quick goals with the goalie pulled.
Ray Whitney got the first at 18:57 of the third when he took a pass from Andrew Ladd in the left circle. Eric Staal got the secondary assist.
Erik Cole electrified the crowd just 20 seconds later with a goal from the same spot Eric Staal had a nice wrap chance that was denied by Thomas at the right post, but Cole tucked in the rebound.
Cole had a wonderful chance to win in the overtime period, but couldn't make it happen.
In the shootout, two Bruins scored while the first two Canes came up empty. In the first round, Sturm missed wide left and Matt Cullen hit the left post. In the second round, Phil Kessel scored five hole and Sergei Samsonov's backhand shot was saved by Thomas. David Krejci scored glove side, and the bottom of the third wasn't necessary.
Carolina can be happy that they persevered and got a point out of nothing. For the second time in the last three games, they have rallied from two goals down in the third. This should be a confidence builder for a team that seriously needs any boost they can get.
Ryan Bayda, Bret Hedican and Erik Cole were all "questionable", but all played. Jeff Hamilton did not play. Defenseman Tim Conboy played on the fourth forward line in his stead, but only got four shifts.
Peter Laviolette has apparently told the team not to come to the rink at all tomorrow. The locker room will be closed. They need to stay home, rest up and be ready to play Atlanta on Thursday night.
By getting the one standings point, Carolina widened their lead in the SE to three points over Atlanta and Washington. Atlanta will be idle on Wednesday while the Capitals will be at home against the Islanders.
The "official" three stars went to Ray Whitney (third), Tim Thomas (second) and Marc Savard (first). I have it a little differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Anrew Ference, BOS --- 1 assist, 4 blocked shots
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 2 assists, 3 takeaways, 3 hits
FIRST STAR Tim Thomas, BOS --- 45 saves, win
Staal was very impressive in taking control of the game in the clutch situation, assisting both goals. This is exactly what the Hurricanes need from him now that Rod Brind'Amour is out for the season. This is his dress rehearsal for the day when the C becomes his.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Illness, Devils pound Carolina.
In a rare lunchtime game, the Devils trounced the Hurricanes 5-1 on Monday. This is the second time in as many visits to the Devils' new arena that the Canes have been thoroughly beaten.
With Erik Cole feeling the effects of the flu, Carolina had to make an emergency callup. Two weeks ago, they acquired forward Joe Jensen in a prospect trade with the Penguins. The Canes had no choice but to call him up, but things did not go well for him. Jensen became ill during the game, and by the time the game was over, he was so violently ill that he required hospitalization.
After receiving IV fluids and other treatment, Jensen was released and will fly to Raleigh to join the rest of the team.
Carolina will play host to the Bruins on Tuesday. No word yet on whether Cole will be back or if someone else will be called up to take Jensen's spot.
This is getting ridiculous.
The Bruins last played on Saturday, a 4-3 overtime loss at Toronto. In their last seven games, they are 2-4-1 and have been outscored 23-15.
Carolina is 4-3 in their last seven games, and have been outscored 22-16.
The two teams met last Tuesday in Boston. In a 3-2 Hurricanes victory, Sergei Samsonov had the game-winning goal against his former team.
With Erik Cole feeling the effects of the flu, Carolina had to make an emergency callup. Two weeks ago, they acquired forward Joe Jensen in a prospect trade with the Penguins. The Canes had no choice but to call him up, but things did not go well for him. Jensen became ill during the game, and by the time the game was over, he was so violently ill that he required hospitalization.
After receiving IV fluids and other treatment, Jensen was released and will fly to Raleigh to join the rest of the team.
Carolina will play host to the Bruins on Tuesday. No word yet on whether Cole will be back or if someone else will be called up to take Jensen's spot.
This is getting ridiculous.
The Bruins last played on Saturday, a 4-3 overtime loss at Toronto. In their last seven games, they are 2-4-1 and have been outscored 23-15.
Carolina is 4-3 in their last seven games, and have been outscored 22-16.
The two teams met last Tuesday in Boston. In a 3-2 Hurricanes victory, Sergei Samsonov had the game-winning goal against his former team.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Canes win barn burner, reclaim SE lead
On Saturday night, the Hurricanes defeated the Panthers 5-4 with a dramatic three goal outburst in the third. The win marked the third win in a row, which matches Carolina's longest winning streak of the season. It is also their fourth straight home win.
Atlanta played a horrible game on Long Island, getting beat 4-1. The Carolina win and the Atlanta loss means that the Hurricanes have sole possession of first place in the division. The Capitals won on Saturday, and they remain two points behind Carolina, tied with Atlanta. The Capitals have one game in hand. Florida is four points back. Tampa is eight points back, but have two games in hand. The division is still anybody's for the taking.
Time-Warner Cable of Greensboro really didn't want me to watch hockey. As I sat down to watch the game, I discovered that my Center Ice package wasn't working. Every channel had a message -- "This channel is temporarily unavailable". Also, the NHL Network was displaying the same message. Then, because my computer is all messed up and the Canes don't have radio coverage in Greensboro, I had to rely on NHL.com for "realtime" updates. It's not the best in the world, but it's a lot better than nothing.
Finally, a few hours later, I got to see the highlights on the NHL Network.
Wade Brookbank, Sergei Samsonov, Eric Staal, Trevor Letowski and Ray Whitney all scored for the Canes. Brookbank, Samsonov and Letowski all got tip-ins by working hard and crashing the net. Staal worked his butt off for his goal after getting knocked down behind the Panthers' net. The game winning goal by Whitney was set up beautifully by a cross-ice backhand pass from Joe Corvo. In two games played, he has two assists, and he's looked pretty good.
Nathan Horton scored twice for the visiting Panthers, including once on a penalty shot.
This was the 14th time in a row the Panthers have lost at the RBC Center. This time, they can't blame the officials. Carolina had a goal disallowed. Florida had a penalty shot goal. They can't blame the "diving" Canes. They have nobody but themselves to blame for blowing a two-goal lead in the third period. The defense allowed some weird angle shots to get through, and Vokoun gave up the juicy rebounds, and Carolina was putting themselves in the right position to get the odd rebounds and tip-ins.
Since I didn't see the whole game, I can't possibly come up with three stars. I'll have to rely on the "official" stars.
THIRD STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR -- G
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR -- G, A
FIRST STAR Ray Whitney, CAR -- GWG
Clearly, Andrew Ladd needs some love. He had two assists, and he's got seven (3/4) points in his last five games. With Brind'Amour and Williams out of the lineup for the season and Cory Stillman traded away, Andrew Ladd is one of the guys who will have to step up. So far, he's seizing every opportunity. Clearly, the onus is on Eric Staal to be "the man", but everyone else is gonna have to get bigger.
Coming down the stretch, Carolina has a good chance to help themselves. They have an overwhelming majority of their remaining games at home, and for the first time all season, they'll regularly have more than one day off between games. This homestretch in the tight SE race will be tough. Injuries are working against Carolina, but the schedule is working with them. If they can dig deep and find some of that "whatever it takes" stuff, they'll be in the driver's seat for the homestretch. I think they can.
Atlanta played a horrible game on Long Island, getting beat 4-1. The Carolina win and the Atlanta loss means that the Hurricanes have sole possession of first place in the division. The Capitals won on Saturday, and they remain two points behind Carolina, tied with Atlanta. The Capitals have one game in hand. Florida is four points back. Tampa is eight points back, but have two games in hand. The division is still anybody's for the taking.
Time-Warner Cable of Greensboro really didn't want me to watch hockey. As I sat down to watch the game, I discovered that my Center Ice package wasn't working. Every channel had a message -- "This channel is temporarily unavailable". Also, the NHL Network was displaying the same message. Then, because my computer is all messed up and the Canes don't have radio coverage in Greensboro, I had to rely on NHL.com for "realtime" updates. It's not the best in the world, but it's a lot better than nothing.
Finally, a few hours later, I got to see the highlights on the NHL Network.
Wade Brookbank, Sergei Samsonov, Eric Staal, Trevor Letowski and Ray Whitney all scored for the Canes. Brookbank, Samsonov and Letowski all got tip-ins by working hard and crashing the net. Staal worked his butt off for his goal after getting knocked down behind the Panthers' net. The game winning goal by Whitney was set up beautifully by a cross-ice backhand pass from Joe Corvo. In two games played, he has two assists, and he's looked pretty good.
Nathan Horton scored twice for the visiting Panthers, including once on a penalty shot.
This was the 14th time in a row the Panthers have lost at the RBC Center. This time, they can't blame the officials. Carolina had a goal disallowed. Florida had a penalty shot goal. They can't blame the "diving" Canes. They have nobody but themselves to blame for blowing a two-goal lead in the third period. The defense allowed some weird angle shots to get through, and Vokoun gave up the juicy rebounds, and Carolina was putting themselves in the right position to get the odd rebounds and tip-ins.
Since I didn't see the whole game, I can't possibly come up with three stars. I'll have to rely on the "official" stars.
THIRD STAR Sergei Samsonov, CAR -- G
SECOND STAR Eric Staal, CAR -- G, A
FIRST STAR Ray Whitney, CAR -- GWG
Clearly, Andrew Ladd needs some love. He had two assists, and he's got seven (3/4) points in his last five games. With Brind'Amour and Williams out of the lineup for the season and Cory Stillman traded away, Andrew Ladd is one of the guys who will have to step up. So far, he's seizing every opportunity. Clearly, the onus is on Eric Staal to be "the man", but everyone else is gonna have to get bigger.
Coming down the stretch, Carolina has a good chance to help themselves. They have an overwhelming majority of their remaining games at home, and for the first time all season, they'll regularly have more than one day off between games. This homestretch in the tight SE race will be tough. Injuries are working against Carolina, but the schedule is working with them. If they can dig deep and find some of that "whatever it takes" stuff, they'll be in the driver's seat for the homestretch. I think they can.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Canes win big game, lose Captain
On Thursday night, the Hurricanes defeated the visiting Penguins by the score of 4-2. Incidentally, I predicted this final tally, and won four shots for my soothsaying awesomeness.
On a much darker note, Carolina may have won the game and reclaimed first place in the Southeast division, but they have lost their Captain. On the first shift of the first period, Rod Brind'Amour sustained an injury to his knee which turned out to be a torn ACL. He's done for the season. By the time this season is done, it's likely that Carolina will have 300 or more man-games lost to injury. I'll get to work on finding an exact number, but I'm guessing that it's somewhere at or above 200 already. Justin Williams, Chad LaRose and now Rod Brind'Amour are done for the season. Matt Cullen has been on the IR for some time and his return is not looking that great right now.
On top of all that, the Hurricanes are dealing with a second bout of the flu. After six or more Hurricanes had the flu back in January, it looks like it's reared its ugly head again. Tim Gleason and newcomer Joe Corvo have contracted the flu and sat out on Thursday.
No matter.
The Hurricanes played with the hand that was dealt them, and they played it well. With no less than four AHL-quality players already in the lineup, they lost Rod Brind'Amour in the game's first minute, but rolled with the punches and emarged with an impressive 4-2 win over a weary Penguins team.
The game was not a part of my season ticket package, but a friend of a friend hooked me up with some corporate box seats with free food and booze. It rocked. So there I sat in a corporate box with two friends of mine who are both Penguins fans and a complete stranger (the one who hooked us up) who is a Sabres fan. I enjoyed.
We got an extremely late start on our drive, but I was very impressed with the Sabre fan's ability to make a one hour drive take about 38 minutes. We missed the first minute of the game, and Brindy's injury.
Erik Cole got the good guys off and running at 3:13 with a tip-in of a right point shot from Ray Whitney. With Jordan Staal in the penalty box for kneeing, Carolina won the faceoff and Whitney's shot was directed in by Cole. Jeff Hamilton got the secondary assist.
Public Enemy #1 Brooks Orpik evened the score at 13:00 of the first. He uncorked a shot from the outside hashmarks of the left circle, and it beat Ward cleanly. Colby Armstrong and Jarku Ruutu got the helpers.
In the second frame, the Penguins took the lead at 2:38 when Evgeni Malkin notched his 33rd goal of the season. His shot from the left circle apparently caromed off Frantisek Kaberle's stick. The goal was unassisted, but I thought Ryan Malone and Sergei Gonchar deserved helpers.
At 10:36, Eric Staal got the equalizer while his little brother was in the box again. Ray Whitney's point shot was tipped by Andrew Ladd and stopped by Dany Sabourin, but Staal picked up the loose change in the low slot and wristed it home. Originally, the helpers went to Whitney and Kaberle, but in the end, Ladd was given the primary assist and Whitney the second.
The third period was all Canes.
Ray Whitney put the home team in the lead at 3:49 of the final stanza when he made a really nifty maneuver through the slot and beat Sabourin for another power play goal. Maxim Talbot (not Jordan Staal) was the party in the box feeling shame this time. Eric Staal and Frantisek Kaberle got the assists.
At 11:39, Ryan Bayda (who is one of many Albany River Rats call-ups) notched his first goal of the season by firing one in off the right post and in from the slot. Scott Walker and Glen Wesley assisted on the even strength goal.
Earlier in the day, I commented to my Penguins fan friend that the Hurricanes power play was listless. I even said to him that they could do whatever they wanted to us and we wouldn't capitalize on our power play chances. Boy was I wrong. Carolina cashed in on three of their six chances.
To start the game, Carolina was already missing three key defensemen and two forwards. Then they lost Brind'Amour for the season. They still put up one of the best outings of the season against an admittedly tired team. Carolina put 46 shots on net, blocked an amazing 22 shots and laid out an eye-popping 32 hits.
The "official" three stars went to Frantisek Kaberle (third), Eric Staal (second) and Ray Whitney (first). I didn't quite see it that way. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Glen Wesley, CAR --- 6 blocked shots, 4 hits
SECOND STAR Ray Whitney, CAR --- GWG, 2 assists, 2 takeaways
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist, 59% faceoff wins
Eric Staal is going to have to do more of what he did tonight. He took the game on his shoulders. He took the faceoffs that Brindy would have taken, and he won them. He scored a key goal and assisted on the game winner. From this point forward, with the Captain out of the lineup, the team is Staal's.
When the Canes and Penguins met last week, Jordan Staal had one assist and Eric had nothing. This time, Eric had the much better game. Eric's goal came while Jordan was in the box, and Jordan was in the box for one of Carolina's other goals. He finished with an abysmal 24% (4 out of 17) faceoff win percentage.
On a different day, I'll plan to post about how I think Canes fans need to get over the Orpik hatred.
On another different day, I'll plan to updated the Staal v Staal v Staal points race.
On another different day, I'll plan to outline the Hurricanes injury woes.
I'll probably get to those posts in reverse order.
For now, the Canes are happy that they're in first place, but devastated that they've lost their Captain for the remainder of the season.
On a much darker note, Carolina may have won the game and reclaimed first place in the Southeast division, but they have lost their Captain. On the first shift of the first period, Rod Brind'Amour sustained an injury to his knee which turned out to be a torn ACL. He's done for the season. By the time this season is done, it's likely that Carolina will have 300 or more man-games lost to injury. I'll get to work on finding an exact number, but I'm guessing that it's somewhere at or above 200 already. Justin Williams, Chad LaRose and now Rod Brind'Amour are done for the season. Matt Cullen has been on the IR for some time and his return is not looking that great right now.
On top of all that, the Hurricanes are dealing with a second bout of the flu. After six or more Hurricanes had the flu back in January, it looks like it's reared its ugly head again. Tim Gleason and newcomer Joe Corvo have contracted the flu and sat out on Thursday.
No matter.
The Hurricanes played with the hand that was dealt them, and they played it well. With no less than four AHL-quality players already in the lineup, they lost Rod Brind'Amour in the game's first minute, but rolled with the punches and emarged with an impressive 4-2 win over a weary Penguins team.
The game was not a part of my season ticket package, but a friend of a friend hooked me up with some corporate box seats with free food and booze. It rocked. So there I sat in a corporate box with two friends of mine who are both Penguins fans and a complete stranger (the one who hooked us up) who is a Sabres fan. I enjoyed.
We got an extremely late start on our drive, but I was very impressed with the Sabre fan's ability to make a one hour drive take about 38 minutes. We missed the first minute of the game, and Brindy's injury.
Erik Cole got the good guys off and running at 3:13 with a tip-in of a right point shot from Ray Whitney. With Jordan Staal in the penalty box for kneeing, Carolina won the faceoff and Whitney's shot was directed in by Cole. Jeff Hamilton got the secondary assist.
Public Enemy #1 Brooks Orpik evened the score at 13:00 of the first. He uncorked a shot from the outside hashmarks of the left circle, and it beat Ward cleanly. Colby Armstrong and Jarku Ruutu got the helpers.
In the second frame, the Penguins took the lead at 2:38 when Evgeni Malkin notched his 33rd goal of the season. His shot from the left circle apparently caromed off Frantisek Kaberle's stick. The goal was unassisted, but I thought Ryan Malone and Sergei Gonchar deserved helpers.
At 10:36, Eric Staal got the equalizer while his little brother was in the box again. Ray Whitney's point shot was tipped by Andrew Ladd and stopped by Dany Sabourin, but Staal picked up the loose change in the low slot and wristed it home. Originally, the helpers went to Whitney and Kaberle, but in the end, Ladd was given the primary assist and Whitney the second.
The third period was all Canes.
Ray Whitney put the home team in the lead at 3:49 of the final stanza when he made a really nifty maneuver through the slot and beat Sabourin for another power play goal. Maxim Talbot (not Jordan Staal) was the party in the box feeling shame this time. Eric Staal and Frantisek Kaberle got the assists.
At 11:39, Ryan Bayda (who is one of many Albany River Rats call-ups) notched his first goal of the season by firing one in off the right post and in from the slot. Scott Walker and Glen Wesley assisted on the even strength goal.
Earlier in the day, I commented to my Penguins fan friend that the Hurricanes power play was listless. I even said to him that they could do whatever they wanted to us and we wouldn't capitalize on our power play chances. Boy was I wrong. Carolina cashed in on three of their six chances.
To start the game, Carolina was already missing three key defensemen and two forwards. Then they lost Brind'Amour for the season. They still put up one of the best outings of the season against an admittedly tired team. Carolina put 46 shots on net, blocked an amazing 22 shots and laid out an eye-popping 32 hits.
The "official" three stars went to Frantisek Kaberle (third), Eric Staal (second) and Ray Whitney (first). I didn't quite see it that way. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Glen Wesley, CAR --- 6 blocked shots, 4 hits
SECOND STAR Ray Whitney, CAR --- GWG, 2 assists, 2 takeaways
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- 1 goal, 1 assist, 59% faceoff wins
Eric Staal is going to have to do more of what he did tonight. He took the game on his shoulders. He took the faceoffs that Brindy would have taken, and he won them. He scored a key goal and assisted on the game winner. From this point forward, with the Captain out of the lineup, the team is Staal's.
When the Canes and Penguins met last week, Jordan Staal had one assist and Eric had nothing. This time, Eric had the much better game. Eric's goal came while Jordan was in the box, and Jordan was in the box for one of Carolina's other goals. He finished with an abysmal 24% (4 out of 17) faceoff win percentage.
On a different day, I'll plan to post about how I think Canes fans need to get over the Orpik hatred.
On another different day, I'll plan to updated the Staal v Staal v Staal points race.
On another different day, I'll plan to outline the Hurricanes injury woes.
I'll probably get to those posts in reverse order.
For now, the Canes are happy that they're in first place, but devastated that they've lost their Captain for the remainder of the season.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Devils stomp Canes
On Saturday night in Newark, the Hurricanes had a chance to build off their great effort Friday night and perhaps open their lead a little in the Southeast division. Unfortunately, they didn't bother showing up and were embarrassed 6-1.
After the win against Washington, I was having an IM chat with The Sliding Pokecheck. We were talking about the Devils and how they've struggled to find offense all season long and how Marty Brodeur just isn't the Marty Brodeur that we've seen in the past. I said something like "Like the 2001-02 Hurricanes, they're hoping that they can win every game 2-1, coz they can't score more than that." A few moments later, I said "Now that I've said that, watch them drop a touchdown on us." I had no idea how prophetic that would be. Well, they missed the PAT, but they still scored the touchdown.
The Devils were on the board early. Defenseman Colin White fired a shot from the left point that went through Mike Commodore's legs, off the far side post and in the goal behind Cam Ward. Officially, it was White from David Clarkson and Jay Pandolfo at 3:08 of the first. It was kind of a crazy goal, and it was a harbinger of things to come. Everything went well for the Devils.
At 5:53, another defenseman scored. Paul Martin took a shot from the right circle which hit Cory Stillman's stick in the slot and deflected in the goal, top shelf. Hepatitis Boy and Jamie Langenbrunner had the assists on the power play goal.
Keith Aucoin gave the Canes a brief glimmer of hope with a crazy goal of his own at 10:35 of the opening stanza. He was in the right place at the right time to deflect an impossible angle shot by Scott Walker from behind the net. He was just there by the left post and got a lucky carom. Walker and Andrew Ladd had the assists.
The game pretty much ended at 15:47 of the first. The Canes were killing the final seconds of a penalty when Johnny Oduya was bringing the puck through neutral ice. He detected that nobody was marking him and he had an unabated path all the way to the goal. He charged in on Ward and easily scored as four and a half Hurricanes skaters stood and watched. The goal was unassisted.
Dainius Zubrus scored a power play goal at 17:58 to make it 4-1. This goal looked a lot like Andrew Ladd's goal against Washington on Friday. The Devils were charging in the zone with numbers. Brian Gionta put a shot on net from the bottom of the right circle. The juicy rebound went to Zubrus with no white sweaters anywhere in the same area code. Andrew Green had the secondary assist.
To everybody's surprise, Cam Ward started the second period. Despite giving up four goals, it wasn't because he was playing poorly. The first goal was through a screen and off the post. The second was a crazy bounce off Cory Stillman's stick. The third, he was hung out to dry, and the fourth was just an amazing play by the Devils. At best, two of those goals were Cam's fault.
At 1:29 of the second, Paul Martin scored his second goal of the game and his fifth of the season. Again, it was assisted by Hepatitis Boy and Langenbrunner.
Jay Pandolfo finished a pretty two-on-one rush at 14:41 to make it 6-1. John Madden and Pandolfo rushed into the Carolina zone with Frantisek Kaberle the only Hurricane back. Kaberle laid down to take the left wing shot away from Madden, but he patiently passed to Pandolfo for the finish. David Clarkson had the second assist.
John Crackers Grahame took over between the pipes after the Pandolfo goal and he steered the boys home without crashing into anything else. Huzzah to him for coming off the bench cold and stopping the bleeding.
The defense sucked. The penalty killing was terrible. The power play was awful. Forechecking was non-existent. The penalties were frequent and lazy. Nothing about the Canes performance was good. Nothing. Well, maybe John Grahame.
The "official" three stars were Oduya (third), Pandolfo (second) and Martin (first), but I have it a little differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Patrick Elias, NJD -- 2 assists
SECOND STAR Jay Pandolfo, NJD -- goal, assist
FIRST STAR Paul Martin, NJD -- 2 goals (including GWG), 2 blocked shots, 2 takeaways.
On Tuesday, the Hurricanes will conclude the five game road trip and the "pretend it's a playoff series" seven game stretch following the ASG. After winning two in a row at home after the ASG, Carolina has lost three of these four road games. They will have the day off Sunday, then will practice in Boston on Monday before Tuesday's game with the Bruins.
After the win against Washington, I was having an IM chat with The Sliding Pokecheck. We were talking about the Devils and how they've struggled to find offense all season long and how Marty Brodeur just isn't the Marty Brodeur that we've seen in the past. I said something like "Like the 2001-02 Hurricanes, they're hoping that they can win every game 2-1, coz they can't score more than that." A few moments later, I said "Now that I've said that, watch them drop a touchdown on us." I had no idea how prophetic that would be. Well, they missed the PAT, but they still scored the touchdown.
The Devils were on the board early. Defenseman Colin White fired a shot from the left point that went through Mike Commodore's legs, off the far side post and in the goal behind Cam Ward. Officially, it was White from David Clarkson and Jay Pandolfo at 3:08 of the first. It was kind of a crazy goal, and it was a harbinger of things to come. Everything went well for the Devils.
At 5:53, another defenseman scored. Paul Martin took a shot from the right circle which hit Cory Stillman's stick in the slot and deflected in the goal, top shelf. Hepatitis Boy and Jamie Langenbrunner had the assists on the power play goal.
Keith Aucoin gave the Canes a brief glimmer of hope with a crazy goal of his own at 10:35 of the opening stanza. He was in the right place at the right time to deflect an impossible angle shot by Scott Walker from behind the net. He was just there by the left post and got a lucky carom. Walker and Andrew Ladd had the assists.
The game pretty much ended at 15:47 of the first. The Canes were killing the final seconds of a penalty when Johnny Oduya was bringing the puck through neutral ice. He detected that nobody was marking him and he had an unabated path all the way to the goal. He charged in on Ward and easily scored as four and a half Hurricanes skaters stood and watched. The goal was unassisted.
Dainius Zubrus scored a power play goal at 17:58 to make it 4-1. This goal looked a lot like Andrew Ladd's goal against Washington on Friday. The Devils were charging in the zone with numbers. Brian Gionta put a shot on net from the bottom of the right circle. The juicy rebound went to Zubrus with no white sweaters anywhere in the same area code. Andrew Green had the secondary assist.
To everybody's surprise, Cam Ward started the second period. Despite giving up four goals, it wasn't because he was playing poorly. The first goal was through a screen and off the post. The second was a crazy bounce off Cory Stillman's stick. The third, he was hung out to dry, and the fourth was just an amazing play by the Devils. At best, two of those goals were Cam's fault.
At 1:29 of the second, Paul Martin scored his second goal of the game and his fifth of the season. Again, it was assisted by Hepatitis Boy and Langenbrunner.
Jay Pandolfo finished a pretty two-on-one rush at 14:41 to make it 6-1. John Madden and Pandolfo rushed into the Carolina zone with Frantisek Kaberle the only Hurricane back. Kaberle laid down to take the left wing shot away from Madden, but he patiently passed to Pandolfo for the finish. David Clarkson had the second assist.
John Crackers Grahame took over between the pipes after the Pandolfo goal and he steered the boys home without crashing into anything else. Huzzah to him for coming off the bench cold and stopping the bleeding.
The defense sucked. The penalty killing was terrible. The power play was awful. Forechecking was non-existent. The penalties were frequent and lazy. Nothing about the Canes performance was good. Nothing. Well, maybe John Grahame.
The "official" three stars were Oduya (third), Pandolfo (second) and Martin (first), but I have it a little differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Patrick Elias, NJD -- 2 assists
SECOND STAR Jay Pandolfo, NJD -- goal, assist
FIRST STAR Paul Martin, NJD -- 2 goals (including GWG), 2 blocked shots, 2 takeaways.
On Tuesday, the Hurricanes will conclude the five game road trip and the "pretend it's a playoff series" seven game stretch following the ASG. After winning two in a row at home after the ASG, Carolina has lost three of these four road games. They will have the day off Sunday, then will practice in Boston on Monday before Tuesday's game with the Bruins.
Canes reclaim first place with road win in DC
On Friday night, the Hurricanes climbed back into first place with a 2-1 victory over the Capitals. With 25 games to play, Carolina has a narrow one point lead in the Southeast division. The good news for the Hurricanes is that 15 of those games are at home and they have a lot of space between games. In the first half of the season, Carolina played most of their games on the road, and they had a bunch of "three games in four days" scenarios.
The game was deemed (by me, anyway) as a "must-win". A loss would have put Carolina three points back of the Caps and in fourth place in the SE.
Coming out of the all-star break, Coach Peter Laviolette told the boys to play as if the next seven games were a playoff series. Five games into this "series", the Canes are 3-2 with road games tonight at New Jersey and Tuesday at Boston. After that, they will have eight out of nine at home.
In the first period of action on Friday, there was a lot of intensity. Two fights, lots of hitting, and some scoring for the good guys.
Erik Cole scored an eye-popping goal to remind us who that #26 guy is. At 3:56, he finished a play that can only be compared to that shootout goal that Peter Forsberg scored in the 1994 Olympics. He was sprung with a pass off the right wing wall, turned on the jets, avoided some backchecking, dragged the puck from his backhand to the forehand. Brent Johnson, who got the mystery start in place of Olli the Goalie, bit on that move, sliding all the way to his right. Cole pulled it back to his backhand and one-handed it in the empty net. I've seen Rick Nash do that in a shootout. We saw Jussi Jokinen do it twice in shootouts. I've never seen a player make that shot in live action. The goal made the #1 play of the night on NHL Network. Enjoy the highlight:
Officially, it was Cole from Cory Stillman and Frantisek Kaberle at 3:56. Milan Jurcina was the defenseman Cole blew past, and he made a last-ditch effort to poke the puck away, but he lost his stick in the process. Although no referee was indicating penalty, if Cole hadn't scored, he might have been awarded a penalty shot. As he finished the play, Jurcina's stick slid across the ice. Whether it was thrown or just got loose, I don't know, but it doesn't matter anyway.
Cole was more than a goal scorer in the first period. He laid the wood to Alex Ovechkin a couple of times. At the end of it all, he had four hits.
At 14:47 of the first, Carolina's 2004 first round pick Andrew Ladd potted his sixth goal of the year to make it 2-1. Sergei Samsonov led the way with the Canes on a 3-on-2 break. Rod Brind'Amour was with him on the right wing and Ladd was coming down the middle. From the right circle, Samsonov just put a hard shot on net. The juicy rebound went right to Ladd in the low slot where he basically just put his stick on the ice to get the goal. This would prove to be the game winner.
The second period was pretty much a wash after Carolina dominated the flow of the first period.
Cam Ward lost his shutout bid at 9:44 when Alex Semin finished a hard-working play to cut the lead in half. The Caps were dictating the flow of the third, and they had some great sustained pressure deep in the Carolina zone. After working hard behind the net, Semin went out to the right circle. There was a ton of traffic in front. Semin shot, then followed his own shot with a stuff in from near the right post. The goal was unassisted.
There were some nervous moments coming down the stretch, but Carolina held on for the regulation win.
For only the eleventh time all season, Alex Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet completely.
The "official" three stars went to Cole (third), Semin (second) and Cam Ward (first).
I have it differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Andrew Ladd, CAR -- GWG
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR -- win, 33 saves
FIRST STAR Erik Cole, CAR -- goal, 4 hits, 2 blocked shots
Carolina will be in the Devils' new building tonight, playing the fourth of five straight road games.
The game was deemed (by me, anyway) as a "must-win". A loss would have put Carolina three points back of the Caps and in fourth place in the SE.
Coming out of the all-star break, Coach Peter Laviolette told the boys to play as if the next seven games were a playoff series. Five games into this "series", the Canes are 3-2 with road games tonight at New Jersey and Tuesday at Boston. After that, they will have eight out of nine at home.
In the first period of action on Friday, there was a lot of intensity. Two fights, lots of hitting, and some scoring for the good guys.
Erik Cole scored an eye-popping goal to remind us who that #26 guy is. At 3:56, he finished a play that can only be compared to that shootout goal that Peter Forsberg scored in the 1994 Olympics. He was sprung with a pass off the right wing wall, turned on the jets, avoided some backchecking, dragged the puck from his backhand to the forehand. Brent Johnson, who got the mystery start in place of Olli the Goalie, bit on that move, sliding all the way to his right. Cole pulled it back to his backhand and one-handed it in the empty net. I've seen Rick Nash do that in a shootout. We saw Jussi Jokinen do it twice in shootouts. I've never seen a player make that shot in live action. The goal made the #1 play of the night on NHL Network. Enjoy the highlight:
Officially, it was Cole from Cory Stillman and Frantisek Kaberle at 3:56. Milan Jurcina was the defenseman Cole blew past, and he made a last-ditch effort to poke the puck away, but he lost his stick in the process. Although no referee was indicating penalty, if Cole hadn't scored, he might have been awarded a penalty shot. As he finished the play, Jurcina's stick slid across the ice. Whether it was thrown or just got loose, I don't know, but it doesn't matter anyway.
Cole was more than a goal scorer in the first period. He laid the wood to Alex Ovechkin a couple of times. At the end of it all, he had four hits.
At 14:47 of the first, Carolina's 2004 first round pick Andrew Ladd potted his sixth goal of the year to make it 2-1. Sergei Samsonov led the way with the Canes on a 3-on-2 break. Rod Brind'Amour was with him on the right wing and Ladd was coming down the middle. From the right circle, Samsonov just put a hard shot on net. The juicy rebound went right to Ladd in the low slot where he basically just put his stick on the ice to get the goal. This would prove to be the game winner.
The second period was pretty much a wash after Carolina dominated the flow of the first period.
Cam Ward lost his shutout bid at 9:44 when Alex Semin finished a hard-working play to cut the lead in half. The Caps were dictating the flow of the third, and they had some great sustained pressure deep in the Carolina zone. After working hard behind the net, Semin went out to the right circle. There was a ton of traffic in front. Semin shot, then followed his own shot with a stuff in from near the right post. The goal was unassisted.
There were some nervous moments coming down the stretch, but Carolina held on for the regulation win.
For only the eleventh time all season, Alex Ovechkin was held off the scoresheet completely.
The "official" three stars went to Cole (third), Semin (second) and Cam Ward (first).
I have it differently. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Andrew Ladd, CAR -- GWG
SECOND STAR Cam Ward, CAR -- win, 33 saves
FIRST STAR Erik Cole, CAR -- goal, 4 hits, 2 blocked shots
Carolina will be in the Devils' new building tonight, playing the fourth of five straight road games.
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