Hurricanes 4, Devils 3

The Carolina Hurricanes scored three goals in the second period, while jumping out to a 4-1 lead, and held on to defeat the New Jersey Devils, 4-3 on Wednesday night at "The Rock" in New Jersey.

It was the second straight four goal game for the team and the second time in a row they scored three times in the second period.

Eric Staal earned an assist and extended his scoring streak to seven games while Patrick Dwyer scored a short-handed goal, giving the Hurricanes an NHL high five short-handed goals this season.

Justin Faulk started the scoring off with a wrist shot from the point 6:44 into the game that Martin Brodeur never saw, thanks to a screen by Radek Dvorak.

The Hurricanes are now 5-0-2 when scoring first in a game and are one of only three teams in the league that have yet to lose a game in regulation after scoring first.  Chicago and Colorado are the other two.

The visitors outshot the home team 12-7 in the first period thanks to several blocked shots in front of their goalie.

Just 1:50 into the second, the Canes made it 2-0 after Tuomo Ruutu took an Eric Staal pass and made a nifty shot.  That makes two goals in the last two games for Ruutu.

A couple of minutes later, Travis Zajac broke into the Carolina zone on a rare odd man rush and beat Cam Ward to make it 2-1, but the Hurricanes were not done yet.

Dvorak would make another nice play as he skated the puck into the Jersey zone, then sent a pass back to Ron Hainsey at the blueline.  Hainsey then wristed a shot past Brodeur, who was once again screened on the play, this time by Drayson Bowman.

Later in the period, Hainsey took a hooking call, but the Hurricanes would be the team to take advantage.  Dwyer stole the puck at the blueline and beat Jaromir Jagr in a race then tucked the puck between Brodeur's legs to make it 4-1.

The Canes started the third period well, but ended up in defensive mode as they only put three shots on goal in that final stanza, while the Devils put pressure on Ward with nine.  Andy Greene and Jagr would both light the lamp to make things interesting, but Carolina prevailed to make their record, 10-10-5 for the season.

The same two teams will do battle again Friday night in Raleigh.

Game Notes:

• Both teams had 22 shots on goal, although the Canes had 11 blocked shots to six for the Devils.  Jay Harrison had a team high three blocks.
• Justin Faulk had a team high 23:26 of ice time.  Muller once again rotated all four lines as Riley Nash was low man with 9:38.
• Dwyer led the team with five shots on goal.
• Manny Malhotra was an amazing 83% in the faceoff circle, (10-12), the only Cane above 50%.  The team finished at 48%.
• Interestingly enough, Carolina is now 10-4-4 without Tim Gleason in the lineup and 0-6-1 with him.  Gleason sat this one out with a lower body injury and is projected to be out for a week.
• Post game interviews are at Canes PR.com.