Canucks 4, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes finished their long road trip with another loss, this time losing to the Vancouver Canucks, 4-1 at Rogers Arena on Tuesday night.  The Canes will look for their first win of the season when they return home to face the Arizona Coyotes on Saturday night.

The Canes had some good moments and the return of Eric Staal gave the team a shot in the arm, but Ryan Miller was equal to the task as he earned his 300th career win while making 29 saves on 30 shots.

The home team wasted no time and scored just 1 minute and change into the game when Brad Richardson got a step on Jay McClement and beat Cam Ward high glove side.

Ward allowed three goals on 24 shots and didn't play a horrible game, but did not play well enough to earn a win either.

The Canucks made it 2-0 early in the second period when Linden Vey scored a powerplay goal just 50 seconds in.

Then with just 1:21 left in the period, the (Y)(J)annick brothers teamed up for a goal as Jannik Hansen tipped a Yannick Weber shot from the point, past Ward to make it 3-0.

At the other end of the ice, Miller was doing whatever was necessary to stop Carolina, including making an explosive post-to-post save on an open Jiri Tlusty, when Staal found him with a perfect, cross-ice pass.

The visitors finally got on the board when Jeff Skinner made a move which drew Miller out of the crease, and Tlusty buried a loose puck in the open net.

Richardson lit the lamp again with an empty-netter to finish things off.

While there were some good moments for the winless Hurricanes, there were also bad moments including one time when Skinner fanned on an attempt to clear the puck from just over the blue line, which led to Vancouver's third goal.

Alexander Semin was called for unsportsmanlike conduct four minutes into the third period and never returned to the ice as he took a spot at the end of the Carolina bench. (Played a partial shift for 13 seconds.)

The Hurricanes made some improvements but still have plenty to work on. They will spend the night in Vancouver and will fly back home on Wednesday.

Game Notes:

• Staal had five shots and led the team by winning 70% of his faceoffs.  Victor Rask had a team high six shots on goal.
• Semin did not register any shots on goal in 16:33 of ice time.  He finished with a -1.
• Andrej Sekera had a team high 23:29 of ice time.
• After just putting up five shots on goal in the first period, the Canes had 12 and then 13 shots on goal in the next two periods.  They outshot the Canucks, 30-25.
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