The Carolina Hurricanes won their season-high fourth game in a row Wednesday, snapping the Florida Panthers’ five-game winning streak. Getting an early jump against a team that played last night, Eric Staal scored just 46 seconds into the game, and the team never looked back. “You just take it one game at a time, and it was another strong effort on our part tonight against another tough team,” said Cam Ward, who equaled his jersey number (30) in saves.
Florida was down just a goal at 2-1 late in the second and into the third, but the Canes were able to put them away for their first victory over the Cats this season.
After netting two goals (and recording an assist) in Winnipeg on Sunday, Staal continued to dominate in the offensive zone for the Hurricanes tonight. He had two goals, the second coming in the third period on the power play. He’s got 23 goals on the season and 7 points (4g, 3a) in his last five games. “I really think he knows where he is with this organization: he’s our leader,” head coach Kirk Muller said. “He leads by example. I think he’s having fun. I think he loves playing.”
In his first game back from injury since Dec. 6, Joni Pitkanen scored the game-winning goal, assisted on another, got a delay of game penalty for sending the puck over the glass in his own zone and logged ice time on the power play. In all, he played nearly 19 minutes and was noticeable at all ends of the rink. Ward called Pitkanen’s goal in the second period a “momentum boost.” For his part, Pitkanen admitted to being nervous before the game. “That’s not easy to miss that much time and step into a game this late in the year and that big of a game. It looks like he never missed a game,” Muller said. “A really strong game for his first game back, and he made us a better team tonight.”
Jeff Skinner returned to game-action after serving a two-game suspension. He logged six penalty minutes tonight, four of which occurred during post-whistle mix-ups. Those penalties, however, were also canceled out by matching minors to Florida. “You want to make sure you have guys sticking up for each other,” Staal said. “At the same time, [you want to be] smart and disciplined.” Skinner recorded an assist, the secondary marker on Pitkanen’s goal.
The conclusion of the game got very interesting when Bryan Allen and Ed Jovanovski were battling in the neutral zone. A lineseman separated them, and the teams ended up coming together at center ice in what was a stand-off. Ultimately, cooler heads prevailed, though Tim Gleason was fired up and looking to drop the gloves with someone. “For me, that’s a moment where we need everybody on our team,” Staal said. “Once it started getting a little dicey, I was making sure I was yelling at our guys that we need everybody.”
A brief return home, the Canes will fly out to Columbus on Thursday for a Friday night tilt with the Blue Jackets. The team’s fourth back-to-back set of the month will conclude Saturday night in Detroit against a Red Wings team that’s 28-5-2 this season at Joe Louis Arena. The three-game road trip will end in Toronto on Tuesday before the Canes come back home for another weekend back-to-back set with Winnipeg and New Jersey. With the team playing like it is now, who knows what the standings situation will be when they return next week? They’re keeping it interesting. “They’re battling and not going away,” Muller said. “We’ll give it all we’ve got every game, take care of our games and see where we end of at the end of the year.”
– Release