Hurricanes 5, Flames 2

The Carolina Hurricanes used some timely goaltending by Eddie Lack and lots of offense to defeat the Calgary Flames, 5-2 on Sunday night in front of 9,934 at the PNC Arena.

The Canes jumped out to a 3-0 lead but the Flames made a game of it at 3-2, before the home team scored twice more to secure the win.

Victor Rask made a nifty move to the front of the net and his shot beat goalie Karri Ramo to start things off, just 2:26 into the game.  It was Rask's first goal in nine games and his 12th of the season.

Later in the first, Elias Lindholm was awarded a penalty shot when he was thwarted on a breakaway chance and he made his shot count to make it 2-0.  It was the first penalty shot chance of his career.

Just 3:50 into the second period, Eric Staal set up Kris Versteeg who made it 3-0, but the Flames were not going away quietly.

Jiri Hudler tipped in a shot from in close later in the second and Joe Colborne ripped in a shot five minutes into the third to make things interesting, but Lack made a couple of tough saves to keep the lead and the Canes offense was not done yet.

Versteeg was credited for another goal, after Jeff Skinner slammed a shot on net that was initially stopped by new goalie Jonas Hiller.  The Flames disputed the goal and used the coach's challenge, but after the review the goal stood.

Just 32 seconds later, Joakim Nordstrom ripped a shot past Hiller to make it 5-2 and erase any doubt of the outcome.

Lack was named the game's first third star and had 33 saves on 35 shots.

The Canes will next play the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night at the PNC.

Game Notes:

• The Canes outshot the Flames 36-35 and had eight different players with points.  Skinner and Versteeg led the way with five shots each.
• John-Michael Liles had a team best four blocked shots.  The team had 15 for the game.
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