By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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Seems we've done this dance before, doesn't it? The Canes try -- again -- to break their franchise record-tying 14-game winless streak this afternoon as the Minnesota Wild come to town looking to sweep the season series after beating the Canes in St. Paul in overtime on October 24. One more loss and the Canes will set some history they'd rather not have any part of, as the franchise has never gone 15 games without a win dating to their entry into the NHL in 1979.
By now, you know that Eric Staal (upper body) and Cam Ward (leg laceration) are out, although Staal started skating Friday and will hopefully be back sometime next week. Stephane Yelle missed one game, but returns today as Aaron Ward sits with an undisclosed lower-body injury, probably related to the same 3-on-5 kill that sidelined Yelle on Friday. Other than that, the lineup remains the same, and the Canes will return to a six-defenseman lineup after skating 7 against the Islanders.
Does the streak end today? We'll know soon...
2:45 1st: Canes lead 1-0; Jokinen 4 (Ruutu, Cullen) An innocent Wild icing turns into a goal for the Canes. The Wild were tossed from the circle, leaving winger Owen Nolan to take the faceoff against Matt Cullen. Cullen won the faceoff forward, all while being hooked (and drawing what would have been a penalty), and Tuomo Ruutu cleaned up the garbage, firing a cross-crease pass to Jussi Jokinen who was unchecked by the Wild defense and tipped the puck past Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom to give the Canes the lead.
5:45 1st: The Canes came close to doubling their lead with Tom Kostopoulos crashing the net after a lucky bounce from Rod Brind'Amour to Joni Pitkanen at the blue line led to a scoring chance that by all accounts never should have materialized. Maybe the Canes are finally getting a few breaks...?
8:30 1st: The Canes are really buzzing around the Wild net, and the Brind'Amour line in particular looks dangerous offensively. For the second time tonight, a wacky bounce allowed Sergei Samsonov to skate around a defender and corral the puck in time to fire a shot on Backstom, the Canes' seventh of the period. (If you're scoring at home, that's more than they've had in the previous two first periods combined.)
13:00 1st: A near-goal for the Canes on a 3-on-2, but Jokinen's pass intended for Ruutu was swept away by a Brent Burns stick check that saved the goal, as Backstrom was out of position and had no chance to stop the puck if Ruutu had received the pass cleanly.
17:00 1st: The Canes are having trouble staying out of the penalty box again, and the Wild are taking advantage of the situation by ramping up the momentum they gain off the man advantages. The Canes, however, drew a penalty to the Wild's best player, Mikko Koivu, and...
17:49 1st: Canes lead 2-0; Corvo 3 (Rodney, Whitney) (pp) ...the Canes cashed in on their first power play of the night. Joe Corvo's point shot beat Backstrom cleanly with Ruutu screening in front, and Bryan Rodney earned the primary assist, his second point in as many games. Good to see that his brain cramp that led to the winning goal on Friday night doesn't seem to have affected him in the least.
End 1st: A solid first period for the first time in a few games has the Canes sitting pretty with a two-goal lead headed into the first intermission. They'll start the second with just over a minute left on their second power play. Shots in the period were 10-6 Canes, and it's been an impressive show so far.
2:15 2nd: The Canes weren't real successful on what remained of the power play, and they gave the Wild some jump in their skates as a result. The defense, though, has collapsed well around Michael Leighton this afternoon, and the Canes' goalie hasn't had to stick his neck out and make a real stunning save so far.
3:00 2nd: Not long after, the Canes caught Backstrom out of his net and down on the ice, but Sergei Samsonov didn't realize it and held onto the puck too long instead of passing to the front of the net where the Canes would have had a tap-in.
4:59 2nd: Canes take a 3-0 lead; Whitney 6 (Sutter, Corvo) (pp) Backstrom never had a prayer on this. The Canes are 2-3 on the power play after Ray Whitney lasered a shot from the top of the far circle that Backstrom never saw thanks to a perfect Ruutu screen at the top of the crease. The Canes' 3-0 lead is their first three-goal lead since their last win, and that was over a month ago.
7:10 2nd: Koivu nearly undressed Tim Gleason and Leighton on the same play, and Leighton came up big with his best save of the day so far in foiling Koivu's wraparound attempt.
7:50 2nd: A bit of an itchy trigger finger for the goal judge controlling the lights behind the Wild net. Tom Kostopolous missed a goal by about half an inch, shooting the puck just wide on the far side, and the goal lights came on for a split second. The goal judge isn't the only one stumped on the play, as Kostopoulos thought he had his second of the season as well.
8:43 2nd: Wild cut the lead to 3-1; Miettinen 2 (Burns, Brunette) Well, that wasn't what the Canes wanted to see. After a wild scramble in front of the net that forced Leighton to cut post-to-post twice to stop a puck, a knuckling shot from Brent Burns at the top of the slot was tipped in front by Antti Miettinen and beat Leighton by bouncing off the crossbar and straight down into the net. Weird goal that we've seen a lot lately, but the Canes have usually been trailing when they've happened.
10:08 2nd: Canes retake a 3-goal lead at 4-1; Sutter 4 (Whitney) (pp) The Canes have made short work of their power plays today. Their third of the afternoon, all with the same unit on the ice, gave them a three-goal lead yet again, this one a great centering pass from Whitney to Brandon Sutter that Sutter drew Backstrom down with and gave him an empty side to shoot at. Sutter didn't miss, firing it home from point-blank range. The same power-play unit has been on the ice for all three PPGs tonight, and every member of the unit has at least one point on the power play.
12:31 2nd: Even without scoring on their most recent power play, the Canes are an astounding 3-for-6 with the extra man, and more to the point they've drawn six consecutive Minnesota penalties. In other words, they're skating today in a way we haven't seen 'round these parts in a while, and maybe all season.
14:06 2nd: Wild score twice to pull to 4-3; Earl 1 (Koivu) 13:46, Scott 1 (Johnsson, Nolan) 14:06 And here we go again. The Canes have, for the eighth time this year, given up two goals in less than a minute. The lucky recipients of the Canes' generosity are a pair of Wild scoring their first career goals, Robbie Earl in his second career game followed by John Scott off a rebound in front of the Canes' net. We can only hope the Canes can regroup...
15:15 2nd: And the Wild came within a fraction of an inch of tying the game. Koivu had a wide-open net with Leighton down and looked to everyone in the building like he'd tie it up, but somehow Tim Gleason came sliding out of nowhere and blocked the shot, saving the goal and giving his team a minute breather after the Wild were skating circles around the Canes for a significant stretch in their offensive zone.
End 2nd: Just found out that Joni Pitkanen and Scott Walker are both out for the remainder of the game, and Brandon Sutter just took an awkward check behind the Wild net and skated slowly to the bench. It never ends, even while nursing a one-goal lead. The Canes are hanging on by the skin of their teeth, and it's going to be a tough challenge to hold off a Wild team that's obviously rejeuvenated after those two quick goals. Shots in the period were 17-14 Wild, and the Canes' overall lead has been cut to 24-23.
2:21 3rd: Wild tie the game at 4; Earl 2 (unassisted) Robbie Earl has his first two career goals, and the second one ties the game at 4. Joe Corvo tried a pass behind the net, but instead of it going where he intended the puck hit the side of the net and bounced right to Earl in the low slot. Leighton tried, but had little chance to stop it as Earl's shot fired past Leighton low to the glove side and made it a new game.
4:10 3rd: Heart-attack city for the Canes. The puck took a crazy bounce off the back boards and slid throught he crease to Andrew Brunette, who nearly gave the Wild a 5-4 lead but fanned on the shot, much to the relief of the paying customers.
7:49 3rd: Stephane Yelle, just back from an injury he suffered while killing a penalty, was on the business end of another slap shot from Minnesota's Brent Burns. Yet again, the Canes' penalty killer leaves the ice with a lower body injury, but this one looks worse than Wednesday's and Yelle went to the locker room unable to put any weight on his left leg.
12:24 3rd: The Canes with their best pressure of the period, forcing a Wild icing and causing Todd Richards to use his timeout to rest his troops.
13:30 3rd: Brandon Sutter, the Canes' best player over the last week or so, nearly put his team back ahead with a dynamic move to get around two Wild defensemen, but his shot over a fallen Backstrom goes high and does no damage.
18:00 3rd: The Canes have had the better play so far, but nothing doing. Are we headed to OT again?
End 3rd: Indeed we are. Updates on Twitter...I'll be out by the ice for the overtime.
Postgame: The streak is over, and in no small part thanks to the goaltending heroics of Michael Leighton. Jussi Jokinen scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Canes a 5-4 win, their first victory since defeating the Florida Panthers 7-2 on October 9. A relieved Canes locker room was clearly more upbeat than they've been for a long, long time, and the Canes feel that they finally have momentum on their side. Michael Leighton posted his first victory since last February against San Jose in stopping 28 shots plus all three shootout attempts.
Click for locker room audio from Leighton, Jussi Jokinen and Ray Whitney. Paul Maurice's press conference is attached.
The Canes head to Montreal on Tuesday for a one-game road trip (only available on Center Ice in French...that'll be entertaining) then return to the RBC Center to face the Toronto Maple Leafs as the Canes try to make it two in a row Thursday night. We'll be there, and hope you'll join us.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
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