Carolina Hurricanes goalie Eddie Lack started just his second game of the season and he looked very rusty as the goalie allowed four goals on the 13 shots he faced while the Canes lost to the San Jose Sharks, 5-2 at the SAP Center on Saturday night.
Three of the four goals Lack allowed seemed to be due to San Jose taking advantage of loose pucks in the crease that he originally stopped.
Joel Ward scored a hat-trick for the home team, the second time in his career he has posted three goals in a game.
Ward scored his first just 1:21 in the game on a loose puck in the crease. Then just eight minutes later, he danced into the Carolina zone all alone and had all day to get off a perfect shot on Lack, who had no chance on that goal.
The Hurricanes would make it interesting with a long overdue powerplay goal to start off the second period. Justin Faulk scored the goal with Eric Staal in front of the net creating traffic. That marker gave Faulk three powerplay goals so far this season, which leads all NHL defensemen.
The Sharks then knocked in two more goals from in close before Bill Peters replaced Lack with Cam Ward, who went the rest of the way for Carolina.
Riley Nash scored his first goal of the season also in the second period when he banked the puck off the back of San Jose goalie, Martin Jones.
That would be the end of the scoring until Ward completed his hattie with an empty-netter near the end.
The Canes will next travel to Detroit and will play the Red Wings on Tuesday night.
Game Notes:
- Lack warned that he might be rusty because of not playing very much but he will have to tighten up his puck control to be successful, whether he sees much action or not.
- The Canes went 1-3 on the powerplay. They are now 3-32 for the season.
- Carolina outshot their opponents 34-21 for the game. Faulk led the way with five while Eric Staal, Victor Rask, and Jeff Skinner had four shots each.
- The Sharks blocked 24 Carolina shots.
- Event Summary