Wednesday, March 08, 2006

ISLES NO MATCH FOR CANES AS CAROLINA CLAIMS VICTORY

CAROLINA

The Hurricanes finally received some offense from one of their veteran forwards on Tuesday when Jeff Friesen buried 2 in the 3-2 victory. Friesen, 29, has been less than impressive in the first 6 games but in this contest, the speedy winger made it a point to put up some numbers. Cory Stillman and Jay McKee both pitched in with two points of their own.

"This was a great win for us," said head coach Joel Quenneville. "Since Kovy has been hurt, this team has picked up the pace and really looked after one another. We gotten consistent efforts from our leaders like Stilly and McKee. I think it shows a lot of our team's character."

The Canes jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead when Friesen used his explosive speed to beat Islander defenders and elude New York netminder David Aebischer. Stillman and McKee both added assist on the Canes first goal.

Friesen notched his second quickly off of a rebound when Scott Walker fired a harmless floater from the corner. McKee picked up his second assist on the play by firing the puck in deep.

"Our boys really dug hard tonight," said McKee. "We cannot match up with their high powered offense and so we really needed to win the small battles. All of our goals tonight were off of simply outworking the Isles."

The Islanders stormed back after a Mike Fisher picked up a penalty early in the second. Defenseman Christian Ehrhoff fired a rocket past a screened Jose Theodore to pull the Isles within one but that comeback did not last. Less than 2 minutes later, Kris Draper, who had been beaten on the Ehrhoff goal received a pass from Stillman and buried his second of the season. Scott Niedermayer picked up the second assist.

With less than a minute remaining in the game, the Isles answered but in the end, Carolina simply shut the door and the Hurricanes hung on for the victory.

"Kovalev will be back next game and the thought is if we can somehow keep this momentum rolling, we should be in good position to make some noise this season," said captain Shane Doan. "With our goaltending being as it is lately, I think we will be a tough team to play against."

The Canes are off today, and good thing. Speedy 2 way centerman Kris Draper was injured in the contest and will likely miss the next game. The day off should help with Scott Niedermayer and Alexei Kovalev to return 100 percent.

note: I haven't been able to add a damn image in two days on this useless blogger.

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