NHL Update: Carolina Hurricanes 4-0 demolish Ottawa Senators
Cam Ward brushed aside all 37 shots for his second shutout of the season, leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-0 victory over Ottawa Senators at Scotiabank Place on Wednesday night.
Zach Boychuk scored twice while Patrick Dwyer scored a goal and had an assist for the Carolina. Erik Cole had the other goal in the victory.
Dwyer got the first of his two points with an assist on Boychuk's first goal, which put Hurricanes up 1-0. Boychuk ran down for Dwyer's pass behind the Senators' net and put the puck past Brian Elliott at 9:24. It was Boychuk's first goal in six games.
"I'm really happy for him, confidence-wise," Carolina Coach Paul Maurice said. "He set up the game-winner last night and then scored the game-winner tonight so another good young player we hope will continue to develop."
Joe Corvo also had an assist on Boychuk’s first goal.
"I really wanted to make an impression because I was moved up to the third line," said Boychuk. "There was an injury that opened up an opportunity for me and I wanted to take advantage of that to show what I can do."
Boychuk scored his second goal on a power-play and made it 2-0 at 13:12. Tuomo Ruutu took the puck in the Senators' end, skated to the low right circle where he dished it off to Boychuk, who beat Elliott with a well-placed shot from the slot.
"I was wide open and we kind of had a 3-on-1 so the goalie had to cheat for the pass and he was not sure who was getting the puck," Boychuk said. "So once I got it I had all the time and I just went top shelf."
With 4:46 remaining in the second period, Erik Cole snapped a shot past Elliott for an unassisted goal and increased the lead to 3-0 for Carolina.
Dwyer made it a 4-0 game with another unassisted goal at the 4:32 mark of the third.
Ward made 10, 12 and 15 saves in first, second and third periods respectively.
"I thought our guys got off to a real good start," Ward said. "It's always nice to play with the lead and it's good to see that we had our depth players contribute on the scoring sheet."
Elliott allowed all four goals and stopped 27 shots for Senators, who ended a two-game winning streak. Senators were blanked for the 5th time this season.
Carolina made 21 hits in total while Senators made 20 hits. Carolina have now won two consecutive games after dropping three in a row.
Carolina moved 2 points clear of the Senators into lone possession of 9th place in the Eastern Conference standings with 38 points. It is still 4 points behind Montreal Canadiens for the 8th and final playoff spot.
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