Another Slow Start: Bruins 4, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes have yet to lose a game in regulation when scoring first this season, but the unfortunate thing for their fans is that they seldom jump out to a lead, (4-0-1).  The same thing happened on Monday night as they fell behind to the Boston Bruins, 2-0 in the first period and ended up losing, 4-1 in front of 13,919 at the PNC Arena.

Kirk Muller felt his team played hard, considering this was their third game in four nights.

"I thought they battled hard.  We had some injuries and thought we would have some guys back this morning, (but) that did not happen.  We had to put some combinations together that are not used to each other but I thought they went out hard.  Again, three games in four nights and we need 20 bodies going."

Cam Ward made his first start in 11 games and started out a bit slow as would be expected for a goalie who has not played in a month, but he did make some good saves to keep his team close throughout much of the contest.  He started out allowing two goals on the Bruins first four shots, but ended up with 26 saves on 29 shots for the night.

After falling behind early, Tuomo Ruutu scored his first goal of the season with just five seconds left in the first period to give his team a lift.  But that is the only time the home team would get a puck past Tuukka Rask this night.

The Hurricanes could only put 24 shots on goal for the game, to 30 for their opponent, but they missed the net 15 times giving them a total of 202 missed shots on home ice, which leads the NHL. (Home ice missed shots).  They also had 10 shots blocked.

Carolina had a over a minute of a 5-on-3 advantage during the second period but they were unable to light the lamp with the chance.  Officially, they ended up 0-4 on the powerplay.

The key goal was scored midway through the third period when Milan Lucic crashed the net and Ward was jostled a bit.  The goalie tried to get back in net, but it looked like Tim Gleason got tangled up with his stick down on the ice and he was unable to move.

Johnny Boychuk ended up scoring the unassisted goal.

Finally, with just 11 seconds left, Lucic would score the empty netter to close it out.

Things do not get easier as the Canes battle the Detroit Red Wings at Detroit on Thursday night.

Game Notes:

• Patrick Dwyer had a team high five shots on goal.
• The Canes were credited with 34 hits and were led by Brett Bellemore and Ruutu with five each.  Jordan Staal and Mike Komisarek had four each. 
  
• The team had 20 blocked shots.  Bellemore had a team high four.
• Ron Hainsey led the team with 23:09 of ice time.  Komisarek was low man with 6:32.
  
• The Canes won 58% of the game's faceoffs.  Riley Nash won 75%, Manny Malhotra 61%, Eric 53%, and Jordan 50%.