Oilers 2, Hurricanes 1

The Carolina Hurricanes dropped another lackluster game at home, this time to the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 2-1 in front of 16,588 on Sunday afternoon at the PNC Arena.

Coach Kirk Muller seemed stymied by his team's inability to score and really had no answers in the post game press conference.

"I thought we had enough chances to earn a point or two, but the shots did not go in," said the coach.  When asked about the failure of the powerplay, once again he had no answers.

"We change personnel around and try guys in different positions, but at the end of the day, it's just getting results.  Obviously, it hasn't been there.  At the end of the day, it's just getting the job done."

The Canes went 0-3 with the man advantage in this game, helping to keep it at 29th in the league.

Edmonton had the early jump on Carolina and were out-shooting them to start out the opening period. Matt Hendricks was given credit for a goal 6:43 into the game as a centered puck from behind the net ended up in the goal after it was tipped.

There was heavy traffic in front of Anton Khudobin on the play, but the Carolina goalie ended up making 31 saves on 33 shots on the night.

The Canes fought back later in the period though as Jordan Staal took a pass from his brother, Eric, and knocked in his own rebound off of Ben Scrivens to tie the score with just 18 seconds left.

That would be the only Carolina goal though and the score stayed tied until Justin Schultz scored the game-winner during a powerplay chance, 9:01 into the third period, with a nicely placed shot from the point.  Once again there was traffic in the crease area for Edmonton, something the Hurricanes offense lacked much of the time.

The Canes were outshot for the game, 33-30, but the Oilers blocked 20 Carolina shots which certainly helped their cause.

Next up for Carolina will be a three game road trip starting with a game against the Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.

Game Notes:

• Jordan Staal led the team with seven shots on goal.
• Andrej Sekera had a team high 24:02 of ice time.  Alexander Semin was right behind at 23:39. 
  
• Manny Malhotra was back to himself winning a game high 75% of his faceoffs in only 5:30 of ice time, (6-8). 
  
• Radek Dvorak left the game early with an upper body concern.  There was no update on his status.