HURRICANES NIP SENATORS

After a season plagued by inconsistent play, the Carolina Hurricanes are getting it together at the right time of the year.  On Wednesday night they used a pair of third period goals to take control of a closely contested game with the Ottawa Senators en route to a 2-1 victory at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC.  The win was the ‘canes fifth straight and eighth in ten games, allowing them to pull within a single point of 4^th place Philadelphia in the NHL Eastern Conference standings.

Ottawa has struggled mightily this season, but entered the game as one of the hottest teams in hockey.  They’ve been playing at a furious pace in the past couple of weeks attempting to make their long shot playoff hopes a reality, and the loss at Carolina broke their own five game winning streak.  It was only the second loss in the last ten games for the Senators, who are still nine points out of the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.  Despite their solid play of late, it might be a case of ‘too little, too late’ for the Sens. 

The first two periods of Wednesday’s game highlighted defense and goaltending, with both teams performing impressively in their own end of the ice and the goaltenders stopping everything that made it through.  Carolina outshot Ottawa 18-13 in the first forty minutes of the game, but neither team managed to put the puck in the net leaving the game deadlocked 0-0 heading into the final period. 

Ottawa took a quick 1-0 lead at 1:16 of the third period when Ryan Shannon from Nick Foligno and Filip Kuba.  They would hold this lead for less than two minutes when Rod Brind'Amour would answer for Carolina, assisted by Ray Whitney and Joe Corvo.  Anton Babchuk would score the eventual game winner at 13:59 on the power play, set up by Joni Pitkanen and Rod Brind'Amour.  Carolina goalie Cam Ward and the Hurricanes defense would do the rest, allowing the team to hang on for a 2-1 victory.

After the game, Rod Brind’Amour said that it was important for the team to keep focus on the big picture:

"We haven't done anything yet.  I'm proud that we're playing in every game, and even though we've got some big wins, we seem to be able to let that go, come back and know we've got to win that next one. ... Even though we're in a situation where it looks good, 'Oh, you're in fourth or fifth or wherever you are,' if other teams win those games, we're really just barely hanging on."

This was the second stop of a six game road trip for Ottawa, who will play the Thrashers in Atlanta on Saturday night before heading to Florida for games against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday and the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.  Carolina will face a tough challenge on the road against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday before they return home to play the New York Rangers on Thursday and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday.