The Carolina Hurricanes once again outshot the Washington Capitals, but this time defeated their rivals, 3-0 in front of 17,503 on Friday night at the RBC.
Cam Ward earned his second shutout of the season with a 23 save effort and Jussi Jokinen scored twice for the home team.
The Canes dominated the stat sheet and won a lot of one-on-one battles in this one as the Caps just did not have their normal jump. Carolina outshot the visitors 33 to 23 and had more shots in every period.
Jokinen started off the scoring with a shorthanded tally 12:43 into the first period when Eric Staal stole the puck from John Carlson in the Washington zone. The Finn broke into the clear and beat Tomas Vokoun with a nifty wrister for his 6th goal of the season.
He would score his 7th during a powerplay in the second period off the rebound of a Jay Harrison shot. Harrison made a nice move to get into the clear and forced Vokoun to make a tough save.
Jiri Tlusty would complete the scoring late in the third with another powerplay goal as he battled his way to the front of the net, dove for the puck, and knocked it into the goal.
Jokinen and Staal both had other breakaway attempts, but Vokoun was able to stop those. At the other end of the rink, Washington really did not force Ward to make any super saves and the Carolina defense played a positionally sound game.
The Canes travel to New York immediately after the game for a match against the Islanders on Saturday night.
Game Notes:
- Derek Joslin challenged Matt Hendricks to drop the gloves in the opening period and was able to get a couple of good shots in before the Cap took him to the ice.
- Alexei Ponikarovsky led the team with six hits. The Canes were credited with 20 overall.
- The team won 53% of the faceoffs for the game. (Staal 41%, Sutter 58%, Jokinen 56%, Skinner 40%, Brent 67%)
- Jiri Tlusty had a game high five shots on goal.
- Zac Dalpe had a good return to the big club and had four shots, two hits, and two blocked shots.
- Bryan Allen led the team with three blocked shots.
- Staal had a team high three takeaways, including the one which led to Jokinen's first goal.
- Jay Harrison and Justin Faulk both led the way with over 23 minutes of ice time each. Anthony Stewart was low man with 9:10.
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