Carolina Hurricanes storm to big win over San Jose Sharks
A storm rolled into San Jose, California on Tuesday, 19 October, but only people to be affected by it were the San Jose Sharks and their loyal fan base.
When the visiting Carolina Hurricanes entered the HP Pavillion, no one knew what to expect, but
the Hurricanes made the most of their chances, and skated away with a 5-2 victory over the home team.
Eric Staal opened the scoring at 5:56 of the first period with a short-handed goal. Chad LaRose and Anton Babchuk picked up the assists on Staal’s snap shot. Eric Cole followed that up
with his first goal of the season at 17:35, a wrist shot that beat Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi.
Carolina continued their torrid pace in the second period, with Patrick Dwyer lighting the lamp with a snap shot that was assisted by Jussi Jokinen and LaRose at 2:43. Patrick Marleau
then ended Cam Ward’s shutout bid at 6:34 of the second period with a tip-in goal. He would go on to add a second goal at 9:34, a snap shot that found the back of the net while the Sharks were on the power play.
In the third period, it was all about the Hurricanes. After assisting on two earlier goals, Chad LaRose finally got one of his own at 2:11. Staal earned his second point of the night with
an assist on LaRose’s goal. Roughly five minutes later, Joni Pitkanen fired a power slap shot that put the visitors up 5-2 and proved to be the game-winning goal.
The visit to San Jose was the first one in six years for Ward, the Hurricanes’ netminder. He was kept busy in the ‘Canes net, making 41 saves on the Sharks’ shooters.
“Yeah, my first game in this building and I was excited for the opportunity,” Ward said of the win. “The guys really had it going from the drop. Our penalty-kill was great.”
“Any time you can kill off three penalties in the first 10 minutes and add a goal to boot, you’re doing pretty good.”
Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice was impressed with team’s performance against the Sharks, stating that some changes to the Hurricanes’ style of play were instrumental in getting them the
win.
"In relation to our last game,” Maurice explained, “we kept the puck moving forward in the first and the third, I thought, a lot better than we did in Vancouver. We did a much better job
of managing and supporting the puck.”
Carolina continues their tour of California with a game against the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday, 20 October. San Jose returns to action on Saturday, 23 October when they visit the Edmonton
Oilers.
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