The Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held on the rest of the way to defeat the New Jersey Devils, 4-2 on Monday night in front of 16,121 at the RBC.
It was the second win in a row for Carolina and the team has now earned points in five of their last six games.
Brandon Sutter started things off for the home team with a shorthanded tally about 11 minutes into the game. The Hurricanes are tied for first in the NHL with seven shorties. Sutter is second in the league with three of his own.
The second period was all Carolina as they only allowed two shots on goal the entire period. Tuomo Ruutu and Anthony Stewart would both notch goals. Ruutu's tally gave him points in five straight games.
With a 3-0 lead heading into the third, the Hurricanes did not play as desperately as they did in the previous periods and the Devils took advantage. First David Clarkson would score with 7:22 left, then Adam Henrique notched one five minutes later.
But the team held on the rest of the way and would score an empty netter when Ilya Kovalchuk tried to send a pass back to the blueline, only to zip the puck into his own goal. Brandon Sutter came close to tipping it and was originally given credit for the goal, but after review, Cam Ward was given credit.
Ward is the first goalie in franchise history to "officially" score a goal.
Game Notes:
- Late in the first period, Carolina was given a prolonged chance at a 5-on-3 including some 4-on-3 but they were unable to convert. Ryan Carter boarded Jaroslav Spacek and was ejected from the game. It will be interesting to see if he gets "Shanabanned" with a suspension. Spacek was able to come back and play in the game.
- Carolina outshot Jersey 33-25. Chad LaRose had a game high six shots.
- Ward finished with 23 saves on 25 shots and was not over-worked in this one.
- The Canes won 49% of the faceoffs. (Staal 46%, Sutter 53%, Jokinen 50%, Brent 45%)
- The Devils outhit the Canes 27-15. Justin Faulk had a team high four.
- Jussi Jokinen had a game high three takeaways. The team had a total of six.
- Jay Harrison had a team high 23:40 of ice time. Faulk was next with 21:50. Stewart was low man at 7:40.
- check out post game interviews at Canes PR.com.
- UPDATE: Carolina also announced that they recalled forward Zac Dalpe from Charlotte. Dalpe will fill in for Patrick Dwyer, who suffered an injury in this one.
- The Hurricanes will face the Penguins in Pittsburgh tomorrow night.