Recap: Canucks 3, Hurricanes 0

The Carolina Hurricanes came into this game riding a four game winning streak at home but ended up being blanked by a hot goalie and snake-bitten by mistakes as they lost, 3-0 to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night at the PNC Arena.

Ryan Miller earned the shutout, his second on consecutive nights, as he skunked the Flyers, 4-0 in Philadelphia in his previous start.

Cam Ward started for Carolina and allowed three goals on  just 13 shots to take the loss.  He was replaced by Anton Khudobin, who has been red hot of late, to start the third period.

The Hurricanes started out well enough and out-skated the tired Vancouver team for much of the opening period.  But while they outshot the visitors, 12-4, they really did not create much traffic or have close opportunities to score.  Even with the help of a late period powerplay, the Canes did not seem to make Miller work hard in net.

The second period belonged to the Canucks as they started to gather steam and scored three straight goals while the home team lost their drive.

Kevin Bieksa started the play for the first score when he bounced a puck toward center ice.  Nick Bonino tipped it, Justin Faulk misplayed it, and Derek Dorsett beat Ward to make it 1-0.

The second goal was much like the first as the puck once again got past Faulk to an open Canuck, Shawn Matthias, who made no mistake.

Alex Burrows then made it 3-0 on a goal Ward would probably like to have back.

There is not much to report about the third period as the tired, but enthused Canucks were able to hold off the listless Carolina team, who might have been already looking forward to playing in Ottawa the next night.

Game Notes:

• The Canes outshot the Canucks, 28-17 and were led by Ron Hainsey with six.
• Jordan Staal did not get a shot on goal but did win 72% of his faceoffs.  Riley Nash won 73% as the Canes dominated the circle by winning 63% overall.
• The team's penalty kill remains grade A as it now has 30 straight kills without allowing a goal, (12 games).  That is the second longest streak in the NHL this season.
• John-Michael Liles led the team with 21:45 of ice time.
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