The Carolina Hurricanes and Toronto Maple Leafs engaged in a wild and crazy game at the RBC Center on Monday night, with the home team finally prevailing, 6-4.
The contest was a back-and-forth, up-and-down game which had fights, an ejection, a goal controversy, and 57 minutes of penalties.
Joe Corvo started the scoring off with a powerplay tally about 12 minutes into the game. The puck looked like it hit something and the goal originally was awarded to Jussi Jokinen, but after further review, was given to Corvo, who extended his team best scoring streak to four games.
The defenseman also chipped in an assist later in the game.
Toronto would tie the score with just eight seconds in the period and things got nasty after the whistle in front of the Hurricanes bench. It looked like Nikolai Kulemin tried to start something with Tim Gleason and Gleason dropped his gloves and popped the left winger, breaking his nose. Both players got roughing penalties, but Gleason was given an aggressor game misconduct and was ejected.
Obviously, that put a hurt on the Carolina defense as they had to finish the game with just five blueliners.
Paul Maurice disagreed with the call and said that he felt the ruling was because of the result of the play, not because of the act.
The Canes were able to kill off the necessary penalty time and thought they took the lead on a Jeff Skinner wrap around attempt. The call on the ice was no-goal, but replays seemed to indicate that the puck slipped over the line. After a near record breaking period of review from the "War Room" in Toronto, the call was an official no-goal, and an incensed crowd let the refs have an earful.
With those calls against them, it looked like the Canes were behind the eightball in that second period, but Jamie McBain dinged the post with a shot and the puck went in to give the Hurricanes back the lead, 2-1.
In the third period, seven more goals were scored as the defense fell apart for both teams. The canes combined for four of them as Brandon Sutter scored twice, Jeff Skinner added to his totals, and Erik Cole connected on an empty netter to finish things up.
Quick Thoughts and Stats:
- Skinner left no question about his "second" goal of the game. He blistered in a rebound that had bounced out to the slot area. That was the 18th goal of the season for the youngest player in the NHL.
- Sutter's goals were two beauties. He now has 10 for the season.
- This is the second time this season that the war room has ruled against Carolina on what seemed to be legit goals. At least they took plenty of time to review this one.
- Jay Harrison said after the game that the defense was put to the test without Gleason playing for two periods. He also stated that sometimes a team can bond and become stronger as they fight through adversity like that. Harrison finished with over 21 minutes of ice time and was +2 with three blocked shots. He also did very well killing penalties.
- The Leafs outshot the Canes 30-28. Carolina was led by Staal and Jokinen who each had four.
- The Canes were credited with 30 hits led by Ruutu with six and Bodie with four. Toronto had a total of 11.
- Jiri Tlusty had a game high three takeaways. He was also tied with Sutter for a team high +3.
- Carolina allowed another shorthanded goal, the second in as many games.
- Next up will be a match on the island against the New York Islanders on Wednesday night.
(You Tube was giving me problems, below are the team's sound bites from after the game)