The Carolina Hurricanes and Winnipeg Jets are two teams ranked near the bottom of the league, each currently struggling to keep their heads above water. They faced each other on Friday night and the Jets came out on top, 3-1 in front of 15,718 at the RBC.
The loss puts the Hurricanes alone in last place in their division and second to last in the conference.
The visitors controlled play for most of the first 40 minutes, outshooting the home team by healthy margins each period, (14-7 and 13-4). But the score was close throughout and while the Canes tried to tie things up in the third period, their last ditch effort came up short.
Winnipeg would take a 1-0 lead on a perfect shot by Evander Kane late in the first period, but Jiri Tlusty tied things up early in the second with some nice puckhandling and a slick shot that surprised Jets goalie Chris Mason.
Andrew Ladd knocked in the game winner though after he out-battled Tomas Kaberle for the puck down low. Ladd's goal came just 1:08 after Tlusty scored.
Kaberle had another rough game, which included a missed chance on an open net in the third period.
The Canes pulled Cam Ward out of goal for an extra attacker with a minute and change to go, but the Jets scored an empty netter to close things out.
Next up for Carolina is an away game at Ottawa on Sunday.
Game Notes:
- Brian Boucher was hit in the face by a puck while sitting on the bench during the second period. Paul Maurice said that there was a lot of swelling, but he should be all right. He did not return to the bench for the third period so the team could treat and monitor the swelling.
- While being dominated stat wise for two periods, the Canes did control the puck in the third and made a good effort to tie things up, (10 shots to 3), but it was too little too late.
- The powerplay was 0-4 and failed to generate a shot on net during the last two tries. It is now rated near last in the league at a bit over 12%.
- Carolina was given credit for 27 hits, led by Brett Sutter with four.
- The Canes also had a total of 15 giveaways, led by Eric Staal with four. Maurice called out that stat as something that contributed to the loss. That and the fact the the team missed the net on 27 shots. Winnipeg had just two giveaways for the entire team.
- Staal had those four giveaways, just one shot on goal, and finished with a -1.
- The fourth line got more time in this one as each of them averaged about nine minutes of ice time apiece.
- Jamie McBain had a team high four blocked shots.
- The team finished at 50% in the faceoff circle led by Jussi Jokinen at 77%.
post game interviews