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| Carolina Hurricanes vs. New Jersey Devils - PKS Consulting LLC |
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The Carolina Hurricanes host the New Jersey Devils at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C. on Thursday.
Both teams are tied in the Eastern Conference standings with 32 points each, and trying to round the corner coming off losses - the Devils are on a two-game losing streak while the Hurricanes are winless in their last four games - earning a point against the Rangers recently.
Goaltender Marting Brodeur returns from an injury and will start while Dan Ellis gets his third consecutive start after posting strong performances against the Rangers and Panthers.
While the Hurricanes have recently placed defensemen Justin Faulk and Joe Corove on the IR, Tuomo Ruutu comes off of it to start his first game of the season.
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First Period:
- New Jersey wins the faceoff and dumps it in early to get the puck moving
- Adam Hall lays a big check on Stephen Gionta in the Devils end late in the shift with linemates Tim Brent and Ruutu
- Eric Staal gets the first shot on Brodeur for the Hurricanes after Ellis made his first save of the game at the other end
- On a follow-through rebound Jussi Jokinen gets a great chance as his shot beats Brodeur but rings off he crossbar
- With 16:27 to play, Alexander Semin takes a seat in the box for cross-checking
- Just 24 seconds later, as Pat Dwyer makea a great move towards the Devils net, he draws a penalty
- However, as the puck is still live on the delayed call, Jordan Staal heads into the corner to Brodeur's left and swings the pass back to the point, but it misses the point and bounces off the boards at center and slides all the way into an empty Carolina net as Ellis has left it to add the extra skater -
- The final result - a goal for New Jersey that is credited to the goaltender, Brodeur, who was the last player to touch the puck before Staal slid it down the ice - 1-0 Devils lead with 16:06 to play
- After a dominating power play, the Hurricanes' barrage of shots on Brodeur leave them outshooting New Jersey 10-3, and still with no goals scored
- The Devils then begin to force the issue and get a shot on Ellis
- Ruutu is effective in throwing his body around early in the game which indicates that he's fully recovered from his hip surgery
- New Jersey still leading 1-0 with 7:30 to go
- No lack of energy on both teams' parts with end-to-end action
- Ellis keeping busy but the Devils aren't connecting on many quality shots and Brodeur is experiencing the same at his end - Hurricanes outshooting Devisl 11-4 now but still trailing 1-0 with 2:10 left in the period
- The period ends with no more scoring but many hits and battles along the boards
Second Period:
- New Jersey starts the pressure on the Hurricanes early on again, but the Hurricanes send it the other way to give Brodeur something to pay attention to
- Semin gets a good look at picking the top corner but misses the net entirely up high
- Ellis hugs his left post tight to keep Ilya Kovalchuk from threading one past him from the left side
- Both teams keeping the pace of play high with lots of contact change of puck possesssion - only three shots on goal so far with New Jersey outshooting Carolina 3-1 currently - still 1-0 in favor of the Devils with 12:13 to play
- Hurricanes pressing with fourth line of Ruutu, Hall, and Brent keeping the Devils hemmed in their zone - doing their job
- Third line of Jokinen, Nash, and Bowman doing the same with 10 minutes left in the period
- Great save by Dan Ellis, even if he didn't see the point shot coming as it hit his pad - gives his team a chance to take a timeout with the Devils pressing - being outshot 7-1 in the period so far
- A point shot from the Devils' point man Adam Larsson hits a body but then Adam Henrique swipes at it while Jay Harrison tries to tie him up
- The puck flies past Ellis' right are and into the net to extend the New Jersey lead to two goals
- Just 46 seconds later Peter Harrold scores on his own rebound after Patrick Elias and Travis Zajac set up the scoring play - 3-0 now for the Devils
- Hurricanes just took their second shot of the period - tough to get them on Brodeur with how hard the Devils are playing in front of him
- Skins and Finns line reunited as coach Kirk Muller trying to put them together to get some kind of scoring combinations on the ice - nothing comes of it
- Lots of different line combinations coming onto the ice for Carolina while the Devils continue to control the puck in the Hurricanes zone
- Neither team adds another goal to the board as time in the period runs down
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- Hurricanes continue line shuffling and the fans in attendance now see both Staals and Semin together as Muller trying to generate offense - somehow - any way possible
- New Jersey not losing any momentum while a more spirited effort from Hurricanes presents more of a challenge
- No scoring still as the period is almost halfway completed - New Jersey still leading 3-0 with 11:18 to play
- Great shift by Staals and Semin but bear no fruit from the effort while Ellis makes a save on a streaking Zajac down the left wing
- Dwyer, Nash, Tlusty get first shot on Brodeur this period
- With 9:15 remaining, Carolina gets a PP as a result of Bobby Sanguinetti getting tripped up into the boards - he skates off in pain
- Jeff Skinner wires a shot past Broduer with 8:33 left to narrow the Devils' lead to two goals
- Eric Staal slid the puck across the New Jersey blue line to Skinner who carried it in along the right boards before winding up at the top of the circle to the left of the Devils' netminder and putting the puck past him for the power play goal
- Skinner lets another shot on Brodeur, but the veteran goalie makes the save and the faceoff will restart play to his right
- Carolina with one of its best forechecking sequences of the game, keeping the pressure on the Devils defense
- A couple of slashes from New Jersey defenders go uncalled, but a tripping call on Eric Staal will slow the Hurricanes' momentum while trailing the Devils 3-1 with 4:24 to play
- With 3:06 remaining, the Devils score on the power play to more or less finish this one out as Loktionov puts a backhander past Ellis - 4-1 now
- It seems that when you play bad, you don't get calls as Semin is pushed and hooked down, but no call
- Dan Ellis seems to cut his hand reaching into his pads and he skates off with 50 seconds to go and Justin Peters comes in
- Time runs out as nothing else eventful happens
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