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Carolina Shootout Woes Continue: Ducks 3, Hurricanes 2 - SO

By Bob Wage
RALEIGH, NC - FEBRUARY 23: Jason Blake #33 of the Anaheim Ducks battles for the puck with Jiri Tlusty #19 of the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center on February 23, 2012 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
RALEIGH, NC - FEBRUARY 23: Jason Blake #33 of the Anaheim Ducks battles for the puck with Jiri Tlusty #19 of the Carolina Hurricanes at the RBC Center on February 23, 2012 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images)
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The Carolina Hurricanes are rated last in the NHL regarding shootouts and still have yet to win one this season as they dropped a hard fought battle in a shootout to the Anaheim Ducks, 3-2 (SO), in front of 16,564 on Thursday night at the RBC.

Jonas Hiller picked up the win for the Ducks and stopped all three Carolina shooters in the skills competition. Jeff Skinner tried five hole, Eric Staal hit the post, and Brandon Sutter was stopped. One of the NHL's best, Jussi Jokinen, sat this one out.

Justin Peters made a nice stop on Teemu Selanne, was beaten by Saku Koivu for the eventual game winner, and then stopped Corey Perry.

After a somewhat slow moving first period, the Hurricanes picked up their pace in the second but could not put the visitors away.

Jerome Samson scored a nice backhander at 13:52 into the first on Carolina's fourth shot of the game. But Anaheim would even the score just 48 seconds later on a Luca Sbisa shot.

The Hurricanes took the lead back off of a shot by Jamie McBain during a powerplay at 5:40 into the second. Carolina generated several chances later in this period but Hiller came up big time after time.

The Ducks were given three powerplay chances in the third --two because of delay of game penalties and one for a Skinner high stick -- and evened the score during one of them on a nice hand-eye knock in by Corey Perry.

The Canes had a couple of other good chances but they were unable to score again and earn that extra point. They will face the Florida Panthers next on Saturday night.

Game Notes:

  • Coach Kirk Muller was happy with his team's effort and thought they played well after the first period.
  • The Canes were outshot 37-32 in this one, but Justin Peters looked confident and made 35 saves. He was obviously much busier than he was on Monday night.
  • Drayson Bowman and Skinner each led the team with five shots each.
  • The team was credited with 19 hits and Anthony Stewart led the way with four, in only 8:18 of TOI.
  • The team had a good number of takeaways again, (16) led by Andreas Nodl with four.
  • Bryan Allen and Jaroslav Spacek each had three blocked shots. The team had a total of 17.
  • Carolina went 57% in the faceoff circle.
  • Justin Faulk had a team high 25:52 of ice time.

Post game interviews: