Hurricanes stay hot, shut out Rangers

The Carolina Hurricanes didn’t get a huge offensive outburst on Monday night, but they maintained their winning run thanks to the stellar goaltending of Cam Ward. Carolina defeated the New York Rangers 3-0 at Raleigh’s RBC Center for their fourth straight win and eighth victory in ten games. 

After a scoreless first period, the ‘canes got on the board when Joe Corvo lit the lamp at the 9:01 mark of the second assisted by Ray Whitney and Matt Cullen.  Rod Brind'Amour added a power play marker early in the third from Whitney and Sergei Samsonov, and Tuomo Ruutu capped the evening’s offense when he put the biscuit into an empty net in the final minute of play.  The star of the game, however, was Ward who stopped 28 Rangers shots for his 5^th shutout of the season.  For the game, Carolina held a 36-28 shots on goal advantage.

In his postgame comments, Carolina head coach Paul Maurice said that despite the team’s run of blowout victories that this hard fought win was significantly more satisfying:

"This game was a lot more fun to coach, and I think if you went around the room, it's a lot more satisfying. It's the difference between potato chips and steak”

The victory vaulted Carolina from 9^th place into a 5^th place tie with Montreal in the jam packed Eastern Conference playoff race where a total of 7 points separate 4^th place Philadelphia from 10^th place Buffalo.  Star goalie Ward said that there was a good reason that the ‘canes came out with playoff-like intensity:

"It was a playoff game, in our eyes. Look at the standings. Everybody knows what's at stake."

Ward also praised the play of his defensemen:

"The puck seemed really big tonight, and that's a credit to those guys. They boxed them out even though they were trying to create some traffic out front."

The Rangers, meanwhile, dropped to 9^th place in the Conference standings and are out of a playoff spot for the first time all season.  They’ve had a tough time on the road of late, with only one victory in their last eleven games away from Madison Square Garden.  That statistic cost Tom Renney his head coaching job and his replacement, John Tortorella, said that the key to his team’s immediate future is better offensive output:

"We're just not going to win if we don't score goals. We were still there going into the third period, but I just don't think we were consistent with our forecheck. We didn't have the puck enough."

He did single out backup goalie Steve Valliquette, who stopped 33 of the 36 Carolina shots, for his solid play:

"He certainly gave us a chance. I have no problem with his part. You need to have the puck, and we're working on having the puck. ... You get no run support and it's a loss for us."

Carolina now faces the challenge of maintaining their winning run on the road.  They’ll play at Chicago on Wednesday, Dallas on Thursday and Washington on Saturday.   The Rangers will travel to Nashville for a game against the Predators on Thursday, before heading to Philadelphia for the first half of a ‘home and home’ series with the Flyers on Saturday.  The two teams will rematch at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon.