Bruins 5, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes came into Boston with a two game winning a streak and were looking to take advantage of the re-emergence of Cam Ward, who has recently looked like he had regained his form of two years ago, when he was a reliable number one goalie.

For the most part, Ward lived up to his side of the bargain and made several quality saves while sometimes under a constant barrage of activity by the Bruins, but the Hurricanes showed that they still have plenty of work to do if they want to keep up with the elite of the league as they were dominated by the home team, 5-1 on Saturday afternoon.

The Bruins came out with jam and out-chanced the Canes 9-2 in the opening period alone while outshooting them 16-9.  Ward kept the score close though and the Canes went into the first intermission only down 1-0, thanks to a goal by Milan Lucic.

The second period was much closer, but the Bruins still had the advantage in puck possession and held the puck in the Carolina zone for long stretches.  Late in the period, Jarome Iginla made it 2-0 off of a nice feed by Lucic to the front of the net.

Early in the third period, Alexander Semin took a faceoff win by Jordan Staal and was able to beat Chad Johnson on a shot that looked like it might have been deflected, but that would be the only score for the visitors.  Semin now has a seven game scoring streak in the books, (4G 5A).

Kelly, Iginla, and Krug would finish the scoring for the Bruins, as they each scored later in the third period.  The Krug goal was off a shot from the blueline with just 10 seconds left, which frustrated Ward to the point that he smacked his stick across the crossbar afterward.

Ward made 36 saves on 41 shots for the afternoon while his counterpart, Johnson made 29 saves on 30 shots.

The Canes will fly home right after the game and get ready for another afternoon match up, this time at the PNC Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m. against the Edmonton Oilers.

Game Notes:

• The Canes were outshot 41-30.  They were led by Semin with seven and Ryan Murphy with five.
• The Captain had a tough game and finished with a -3, while winning only 31% in the circle.  There was one time he failed to get the puck out of his zone, which indirectly led to a goal against a bit later.
• The team went 0-3 on the powerplay.
• Semin played a team high 22:14 TOI.
• Brett Bellemore had a team high three blocked shots.
• The Canes were out-hit 27-21 and the Bruins seemed more physical overall, which may have taken a toll on the Hurricanes later in the game.
• Interviews and other info to be found at Canes PR.com.