Sports

NHL

'Canes lack power play until it counts

Associated Press
Published December 24, 2005

---

RALEIGH, N.C. - Peter Laviolette had plenty of reason to feel frustrated about the Hurricanes' inability to score on the power play.

But, instead, the coach looked at the man-advantage goal they did score.

"It won the game for us," he said. "Take the positive from it."

Rod Brind'Amour scored in the third period for the team's only power-play goal in 15 chances, helping the Hurricanes beat the Florida Panthers 4-3 on Friday night.

Justin Williams put Carolina ahead to stay with a third-period goal, and Eric Staal and Matt Cullen also scored. Martin Gerber had 22 saves for the Hurricanes.

Carolina had the most power plays known in in franchise records, dating to the 1980s and the team's days in Hartford, Conn. The franchise had 13 chances three times, most recently in a 7-0 win against Pittsburgh four years ago.

Olli Jokinen had two goals and an assist for Florida, which has lost all three meetings with Carolina this season.

"That's embarrassing. That's all I'm going to say," Florida defenseman Sean Hill said. "The Hurricanes are a great team, they don't need any help. It just seemed like it wasn't called very consistent."

RED WINGS 3, BLACKHAWKS 2 (OT): Pavel Datsyuk scored a power-play goal with one second left for visiting Detroit, which scored twice in the final 39 seconds of regulation to force overtime. Datsyuk fired a one-timer off a feed from Jason Woolley past ex-Lightning goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin. With Detroit goalie Chris Osgood on the bench for an extra attacker, Kris Draper and Nicklas Lidstrom scored near the end of regulation. Lidstrom tied it on a slap shot from the deep slot with seven seconds left.

THRASHERS 1, DEVILS 0: Rookie Michael Garnett stopped 29 shots to record his first NHL shutout and Marian Hossa scored on a power play in the second for visiting Atlanta. Atlanta's leading goalscorer, Ilya Kovalchuk, sat out because of a suspension. The league gave him a one-game ban for throwing his stick into the stands during Thursday's game.

FLYERS 5, PENGUINS 4: Mike Knuble and Peter Forsberg scored late to rally visiting Philadelphia, which had squandered a three-goal lead. Sidney Crosby scored twice 44 seconds apart early in the third in his first game since being left off Canada's Olympic team. The Penguins were down 3-0 before coming back to lead 4-3 on Crosby's two goals and an assist but Marc-Andre Fleury, who settled down after allowing several soft goals early, let in two more 1:10 apart to decide it. Knuble won it at 16:37 with a wrist shot.

PREDATORS 5, BLUE JACKETS 4: Paul Kariya had assists on three of Nashville's four first-period goals, and the visiting Predators hung on. Nashville, which entered with the second-most points in the Western Conference, scored three power-play goals for its fifth straight win and eighth in 11 games.

SENATORS 4, ISLANDERS 2: Backup Ray Emery stopped 25 shots, and four players scored against Rick DiPietro for visiting Ottawa. Patrick Eaves, Zdeno Chara, Andrej Meszaros and Dany Heatley scored for the Senators, 3-0 against the Islanders this season.

MAPLE LEAFS 2, BRUINS 1: Bryan McCabe and ex-Lightning forward Darcy Tucker had power-play goals for host Toronto, which went 0-for-9 with the man advantage Thursday in a 4-1 loss at Boston. Toronto had lost five of seven while going 6-for-47 (13 percent) with an extra man.

CAPITALS 4, CANADIENS 2: Alexander Ovechkin had his 20th goal of the season and Jeff Halpern had three assists for host Washington. Ovechkin leads all rookies in goals and scoring with 39 points. Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig, who made 42 saves, had a couple of dazzling stops in the second period, including the denial of Mathieu Dandenault on a breakaway.

WILD 5, AVALANCHE 3: Todd White and Marian Gaborik scored 26 seconds apart and host Minnesota had three goals in the final 5:12. With the score tied at 2, White, Gaborik and Marc Chouinard scored. Colorado's Antti Laaksonen tied it midway through the third.

COYOTES 3, STARS 2: Shane Doan and Dave Scatchard made the most of Phoenix's only shots in the third, scoring 22 seconds apart to rally visiting Phoenix. Dallas' leading goalscorer, Jere Lehtinen, sat out because of the flu.

OILERS 5, KINGS 3: Ales Hemsky scored the winning goal off his foot and host Edmonton won their fifth straight with a big third period. Raffi Torres tied it at 3 in the third period, one of Edmonton's three goals in the period.

BLACKHAWKS: Defenseman Brent Seabrook is expected to miss 4-6 weeks after spraining his knee Wednesday against Nashville.

[Last modified December 24, 2005, 01:10:16]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]