Game Notes:
Event Summary
Corsi/Fenwick Data
Play-by-Play
Head-to-Head
Faceoffs

Don't look now, but the Hurricanes have won three of their last four and won yet another scoring chance battle. Tuesday's disaster against Pittsburgh aside, this team has looked improved over the past week, but they have gotten some help with the number of one-goal games but it is a lot better than going through a losing streak. It also helps to draw a penalty in overtime against an AWFUL Leafs penalty kill which helped Eric Staal record his second goal of the night to win it for the Canes in overtime. Carolina played a great game overall and got one of the strongest defensive efforts from Brandon Sutter, Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison, but they didn't fully wake up until the the third period where they fell behind 3-1...and then went onto record seven consecutive scoring chances, tie the game and eventually pick up the two points in overtime.

If we can get more efforts like what we saw in the third period then there should be some great things to come from this team. Sadly, one great period does not make a team great and if the team did play like they did in the third period all the time then they wouldn't be sitting where they are in the standings right now. It'll be a long process but let's enjoy the victory for now and hope we can see more performances like this.

A record was set last night at the Consol Energy Center. The Pittsburgh Penguins recorded a total of 27 scoring chances in their 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes, which marks the highest count I have ever recorded for a single team. It could have been an overall record if the Hurricanes had more than 11 total chances but that wasn't the case. Last night's game was mostly a one-sided affair as the Penguins dominated Carolina and everything seemed to go wrong for the Canes outside from the play of goaltender Justin Peters. Making his first start of the season, Peters was thrown into the wolves having to stop 48 out of 52 shots and 23 of 27 scoring chances. Peters was heavily panned for his play last year with the Hurricanes but last night was one of his best performances despite giving up four goals. It could have been a lot worse if it wasn't for him and the Hurricanes owe him one big time.

Aside from Peters and Tuomo Ruutu's goal streak being extended, there isn't too much positive to write about with this game but we're going to dive deeper into it anyway.

When Tuomo Ruutu tipped in Jay Harrison's long point-shot to give the Canes a 2-1 win over the Ottawa Senators, there were loud cheers and a collective sigh of relief throughout the RBC Center as Carolina picked up their first overtime win of the season. Not only that but it was also their first goal when playing four-on-four, which is an area where the Canes needed to improve on. Another area the Canes needed to improve on was outchancing their opponent and with the Senators playing their second game of the back-to-back, they had the perfect opportunity to do that tonight.

The final chance count ended up being 17-11 in favor of the Canes and 13-9 at even strength, so they accomplished their goal there. Despite the lopsided numbers, this game was actually a lot closer on the scoreboard thanks to Craig Anderson. While he isn't having a good year, Anderson was a wall tonight and stole a point for his team. He is usually lights out against the Hurricanes and that trend continued tonight as the Canes peppered him with 19 shots in the first period and he was able to turn away all but one, which was a deflection off a defenseman's skate in front. Speaking of which, the oddest thing about this game was that only one of the three goals came on scoring chances. The Canes first goal came from a sharp angle and the Senators goal was a shot from long range that deflected off of Patrick Dwyer's stick. Had Ruutu not tipped in the game winner, all three goals would not have been scoring chances in this game. I can't remember if that's ever happened in a game I have tracked. Either way, it was great to finally get an OT win and send the team home for Christmas on a winning note.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

There will be games where the team does most things right and plays well enough to win but comes out on the short end due to a few things going awry. Last night's 4-3 loss against the Coyotes was one of those games for the Hurricanes and it's very disappointing because this was one of their better efforts of the season. They had the powerplay going, held the Coyotes to less than 20 even strength shots and were getting a reasonable amount of production from all four lines. If that's the case, then why did they lose? Well, for one they continued their trend of playing awful four-on-four and surrendered the game-winning goal to Lauri Korpikoski in the third period in that situation. Phoenix goaltender Jason LaBarbera also played a very solid game stopping 34 of 37 shots compared to Cam Ward stopping 15 out of 19, although there wasn't much he could do about any of the goals he gave up. Phoenix converting on their one and only powerplay chance also played a factor while the Canes were 0 for 3 on the night despite getting some great looks with the man advantage.

In other words, the bounces went Phoenix's way in some areas but they certainly made the most of their opportunities while Carolina squandered away theirs. They also did a solid job of limited Caroliina's chances at even strength as the scoring chances aren't as lopsided as the shot total for both teams indicates. Phoenix was able to most of Carolina's shots to the outside and didn't allow them into the dangerous areas for much of the third period when they were protecting a 4-3 lead. Receiving a great performance in net like what Phoenix got from LaBarbera last night also helps. 

Scoring chances & more after the jump

I could pull out all of the cliches in the world to describe yesterday's 3-2 overtime loss against the Florida Panthers.

"Carolina didn't put together a full sixty minutes."

"Carolina won in every category but the scoreboard."

"One or two silly mistakes cost them the game."

"Florida played to win the game while Carolina played not to lose."

All of those would more or less describe the game against Florida pretty accurately and I feel that the same thing happened in almost every game Carolina has lost in overtime this year. That's not to say the Canes played a bad game because they didn't and they actually had the upper-hand on Florida for a little over 40 minutes. Everything after the second period, though? Awful. The Panthers outshot Carolina 13-3 in the third period and overtime and could only muster up one scoring chance. This came after a strong second period where they were able to take a 2-1 lead but they showed little effort to build on that lead, took stupid penalties and couldn't establish any kind of forecheck.

The bright side? The Canes have earned points in three consecutive games and I suppose you can say that they've earned them.

Scoring chances & more after the jump.

All season long, the one thing that's been frustrating Canes fans the most (myself included) is how some of the team's best prospects were being restricted to fourth line minutes but it appears that is about to change under Kirk Muller. With Jeff Skinner out, that leaves a huge hole to fill in the top-nine but it also creates an opportunity for one of the younger players to assume a bigger role and they might be able to stick around in Raleigh if they make the most of their playing time. 2008's third round pick Drayson Bowman got his chance last night and he certainly took advantage of it. Scored two goals and was one of the team's most effective offensive players in route to a 4-3 win over the Vancouver Canucks. 

That's not the only thing we can talk about in this game, though. There was the team's powerplay having a very successful night, Cam Ward's terrific play and the second line coming to life. We'll get into all of that after the jump.

One of the ongoing stories for this season is how the Hurricanes goaltending, specifically Cam Ward, has not been nearly good enough this season. Going into tonight, Ward had a sub-.900 save percentage, an even strength save percentage that's way below the league average and only one quality outing in his last seven games. Last season, he was the main reason why this team was so close to making the playoffs and this year he's been a part of the numerous problems with this team. 

Tonight's game against Toronto was a different story as he put together his best performance in over a month with 36 saves on 38 shots in a game which the Canes had no business being in. He may have taken the 2-1 overtime loss on a leaky goal, but if it wasn't for him, Carolina wouldn't have even gotten a point tonight. The Canes created only five total chances at even strength and were outplayed by the Leafs from the opening whistle but Ward was able to stand on his head and look more like the goaltender we're used to seeing. He was at his best while the rest of the team was not.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

I'm not sure how many games this season I've counted as ones where we needed to "burn the tape" but last night's 4-2 beatdown at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets has to be in that grouping. The Hurricanes had less than 10 even strength scoring chances, were outshot 31-21 at even strength and the only time they could muster up any kind of offense was in the third period...when they were already down 4-0. They were able to make things a little interesting towards the end, but overall the Canes were manhandled in this game.

Before we look at the gruesome details, let's put things into context that the team's #1 defenseman and highest scoring forward did not play in this game. They were also playing only 17 skaters, which put them at a disadvantage from the get-go.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Riding a seven game losing streak and playing the second game of a back-to-back on the road is usually a recipe for disaster but Carolina came out strong tonight and (despite a couple of bad bounces early on) took it to the Oilers for most of this game. The Canes really needed a win like this to raise the spirits of both the team and the fans. Edmonton played an awful game but Carolina hasn't exactly been playing well this year either so it was good to see them put together this kind of performance. The 5-3 doesn't show how dominant Carolina was tonight but the scoring chances for tonight do. Carolina held the Oilers to only 6 even strength scoring chances tonight. Considering that the Canes had 8 even strength chances in the first period alone, this should show how one-sided things were. The score could have been a lot more lopsided had it not been for Devan Dubynk but I don't think the score matters for Carolina at this point as long as they win.

Scoring chances & more after the jump

Where do I begin with this game? Should I talk about how Carolina got off to a horrible start and ended up in a 3-0 hole? Maybe it would be better to start things off on a more positive note and say how the Canes scored six goals for the first time in forever and were even with the Flames in scoring chances. That sounds pretty good at first glance but not when you consider that they registered a good chunk of those chances late in the game when they were trailing the Flames. I could also try to be positive and talk about Mike Murphy's NHL debut, but Murphy wouldn't have needed to come in if Cam Ward didn't give up six goals on 32 shots. There's a lot of other things I could go on about with this game like Eric Staal's three point night, the powerplay failing on three attempts, Tomas Kaberle having one of his better games as of late or Joni Pitkanen's injury. There were just so many oddities in this game that I could talk about but I think this final statement sums things up best: 

Mike Murphy played about 8 minutes tonight in relief of Cam Ward. When he entered the game it was 6-3 Flames. The Canes cut the score to 6-4, pulled the goalie and the Flames scored an empty netter to make it 7-4. Carolina scored twice then and lost 7-6 which means that Jarome Iginla's empty net goal was the game winner and Murphy was the goalie of record. So Murphy "lost" his first NHL start despite not even being on ice for the game winning goal.

This is what it's like when two teams with bad defenses face each other.

Scoring chances & more after the jump