2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series Weekend Roundup – Carolina Hurricanes win 2-1 against the Minnesota wild on shoot out.
The 8th game of the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Series saw the Carolina Hurricanes face the Minnesota Wild as both teams played the 2nd round of matches. The match took place this weekend at the Hartwall Arena, home of the Carolina
Hurricanes in front of 13,000 fans. The Carolina Hurricanes were looking to continue on the roads after they beat the Minnesota Wild early in the week 4-3. Though this game was much more intense than the previous encounter, the Carolina Hurricanes won the
game 2-1 in the end.
1st Period
The previous encounter between the two teams was a goal fiesta that gave the audience an entertaining match. This time out it was totally different as both teams didn’t attack at all in the beginning stages of the match.
Though both teams knew that their defences weren’t as strong as their offence, still they were reluctant to attack. The Minnesota Wild put up a good performance during the middle part of the period but couldn’t score due to the lack of confidence, as the
analysts see it.
The Carolina Hurricanes were well aware of the power in the Minnesota Wild’s offence, so they stayed back looking for an opportunity to come their way through a mistake. However, this was not to be as the Minnesota Wild was very strong at the back. Added
to this was the fact that the Minnesota Wild started to attack the Carolina Hurricanes frequently.
The calculated risks along with the some brilliant plays and hard work saw the Minnesota Wild scoring in the 18th minute of the period. The Minnesota Wild took the lead with this goal that came from Andrew Brunette through a well worked 9 feet
wrist shot.
The period saw an end with the score 1-0 in favour of the away team who scored once out of the 18 goal attempts. The home team, Carolina Hurricanes made 11 attempts on goal but didn’t score.
2nd Period
When the players headed to the pitch for the start of the 2nd period, a roar started all around the fans and Mexican waves were seen as the home fans wanted a win from their cherished team.
Keeping all this in mind along with the team talk helped the Carolina Hurricanes a great deal. They started off the period in a spectacular way coming up with full force attacks at the opposition. Consequently, the Carolina Hurricanes scored in the 2nd
minute of the period through Toumo Ruutu. The goal was scored from 13 feet with a superb slap off. The score was level at 1-1. After this, both teams approached the game slowly and defence.
The period saw no further goal as a resulted and the teams went into the break levelled. During the course of the period, the Carolina Hurricanes scored once out of the 10 goal attempts, whereas the Minnesota Wild didn’t score any goals.
3rd Period
The 3rd period saw the away team poor on the offence. This was due to the perfect defence of the Carolina Hurricanes that concentrated throughout the period.
The offence on the other hand was as impressive as they attacked the Minnesota Wild quite often but to their disappointment, they couldn’t score. As the game approached the end, the Carolina Wild started to make more and more goal attempts and the frustration
could be seen as they couldn’t score.
The period ended, as neither of the teams scored and the score was level at 1-1. The Minnesota Wild made 4 goal attempts and the Carolina Hurricanes made 15 goal attempts but neither of the teams scored.
The game went into overtime but no goals were seen in overtime as well. Though the Minnesota Wild dominated the period with 4 shots compared to 1 of the home team.
Finally, the game went into a shootout after which the Carolina Hurricanes won the match through Jeff Skinner’s successful shot that went into the goal.
"I thought we played well (Thursday) and we deserved to win," said Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice. "I don't think we were the better team today, but our goaltender was and we pay him, so we get to take the two points."
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