For the second game in a row, the Carolina Hurricanes outshot their opponent but came up on the losing side on the scoresheet as they were shutout by the Buffalo Sabres, 2-0 on Tuesday night at the First Niagara Center.
Jhonas Enroth earned the shutout and stopped all 35 shots he faced.
The Canes split duties again in net as Anton Khudobin allowed zero goals on nine shots and Drew MacIntyre allowed two goals on 12 shots. Both goalies played half the game.
The bad news of the night was that Jordan Staal had to be helped from the ice while in obvious pain in the third period, after a collision with Josh Gorges. After the game, he was seen using crutches to get around the dressing room. There was no update on his status at the time of this writing.
The Canes had three tries on the powerplay, (and an abbreviated seven second advantage) but came up short this night.
It is hard to know who played well and who did not without watching the game but it sounded like Khudobin played well when he was between the pipes. Coach Peters also praised Rask.
We will report an update on Staal as soon as we hear something. (It was reported on Twitter that he was returning to Raleigh.)
The team will fly directly to New York for a tilt against the Islanders on Wednesday night.
Game notes:
- Justin Faulk played a game high 26:27 of ice time.
- Nathan Gerbe had a game high eight shots on goal as he most likely was trying to light up his former team.
- The club had 21 hits and were led by Jared Staal with five.
- The team won 62% of their faceoffs. (Victor Rask 69%, Riley Nash 83%, Jordan Staal 63%).
- (We will post more info as it becomes available.)