Recap: Hurricanes 2, Flyers 1

The Carolina Hurricanes held on for their first win in their first game of 2015 as they defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-1 in front of 12,000 plus fans at the PNC Arena on Friday night.

Brad Malone scored his first goal of the season on a nicely placed shot 13:41 into the first period to give the home team a lead they would never relinquish.  Zach Boychuk created the play with a nice steal and got the puck to Malone, who was breaking in 2-on-1.

The Canes were dominating the flat Flyers at this point and outshot the visitors, 12-4 in the first period.

Just  41 seconds into the second period, Eric Staal made it 2-0 when he knocked in a rebound of a Justin Faulk shot.  Jordan Staal created this play as he made a nice move to get open and put a shot on goal that hit the pipe and bounced back out in play.

The younger Staal then went to the net and cleared the way for his older brother to get the rebound.

Jordan Staal's wife had just delivered a baby girl at 2 a.m. that morning so "daddy" looked a bit tired in the dressing room after the game.

The Flyers would put on the pressure in the third and got close at 2-1 when Chris Vandevelde beat Cam Ward, 8:45 into the period.  The Carolina goalie was not seeing a lot of rubber up to this point as the Canes were outshooting the Flyers, 25-14.

The Flyers continued to pressure though but could not solve Ward again the rest of the way as the Canes only got one more shot on goal for the game.

There was one scary moment in the third when Claude Giroux went down on the ice and had to be helped to the Carolina treatment room.  It looked like his foot/ankle area  had been cut, but after the game he said that he was "lucky" and okay.  It was not a deep cut and he's not expected to miss any time.

Eric Staal has been red hot of late and has now scored three goals in his last three games (one goal each) and has points in his last four straight.  The captain needs one more goal for number 300 of his career.  After the game he said that playing on the same line of his brother helps his game and "makes life easier."

Next up for Carolina will be the Boston Bruins on Sunday at 1 pm on home ice.

Game Notes:

• Andrej Sekera had a team high 24:10 of ice time.
  
• The Canes were credited with 28 hits and were led by Jiri Tlusty with five.  Malone was next with four. 
  
• Carolina outshot Philly 26-21 for the game.   Faulk had a team high five.
• Malone was given the fireman's helmet after the game as the game's MVP.  Peters credited him with picking up his game in the past couple of weeks.  Malone said he was not going to shave until he scored a goal, so good for him, he gets a new look soon.
• Tim Gleason had a game high three blocked shots.