WARD BACKSTOPS CANES’ WIN OVER CAPS

The Carolina Hurricanes have had an up and down season, but they’ve started to play well down the stretch.  The ‘canes have won 7 of their last 9 games, and ran their home winning streak to 8 straight games as they Washington 4-1 at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC on Saturday night.  Cam Ward stopped 31 Washington shots to backstop the victory, earning the game’s “first star’ award in the process.

After a scoreless first period, the two teams traded scores in the second with Carolina striking first on Rod Brind'Amour’s goal coming at 3:43 of the period assisted by Jussi Jokinen and Sergei Samsonov.  The Caps would tie the game just seconds before the intermission as Mike Green scored his 28^th of the year from Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin.  Carolina would take control of the contest for good in the final twenty minutes, starting with Joni Pitkanen’s goal at 4:42 set up by Erik Staal and Chad LaRose.  Anton Babchuk’s goal at 13:43 from Dennis Seidenberg and Ray Whitney would increase their lead to 3-1, and Joe Corvo would put the puck into an empty net with less than a minute left for the coup de grace. 

After the game, Carolina goaltender Ward praised the fans for creating a great home ice atmosphere while stressing the importance of getting an early lead:

"The fans have created a tremendous atmosphere here and we've been able to rally behind them. Scoring the first goal has been key. Despite the start we had we were able to get the lead and go from there."

Defenseman Corvo suggested that the team’s gritty style of play was a key to the win:

"You've got to play those guys tough. You've got to get under their skin. We took a lot of their weapons away."

The Hurricanes head to Miami for a game against the Florida Panthers on Monday night, and will try to extend their home ice winning streak on Wednesday as the host the Ottawa Senators.  They’ll face a tough road test next Saturday as they visit the New Jersey Devils.  The Caps are currently in third place in the Eastern Conference, 1 point behind second place New Jersey and four behind the conference leading Boston Bruins.  They’ll head to Toronto on Tuesday before home games on Friday against the Tampa Bay Lightning and next Wednesday against the New York Islanders.