Hurricanes rout Leafs 6-1

RALEIGH, N.C. – The Carolina Hurricanes extended their win streak to five games with a 6-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at PNC Arena on Thursday.

After traveling to Buffalo three days ago to only end up practicing since their Jan. 7 game with the Sabres was postponed to Feb. 25th as the result of hazardous weather conditions, the Hurricanes used the time to better prepare for the Leafs.

“Lately, it’s our leaders who have been doing a great job getting the guys ready and that canceled game in Buffalo gave us an extra day or two of rest,” Hurricanes coach Kirk Muller said.

“I wasn’t sure how the game was going to turn out tonight. I think that really helped us. We had fresh legs and everyone contributing and I was able to use a full bench, which was great.”

With those fresh legs, the Hurricanes got goal production from six different players while goaltender Anton Khudobin made 25 saves to record his sixth win of the season.

Center Jordan Staal led all scorers with his highest output of the season, a goal and three assists, while equaling and surpassing his 300-point career mark as well.

Supporting Staal’s effort was rookie forward Elias Lindholm who tallied his second career multi-point game (1g, 2a) to reinforce the offensive effort that also included goals from forwards Jeff Skinner (1g, 1a), Zach Boychuk (1g, 1a), Patrick Dwyer (1g) and defenseman John-Michael Liles (1g).

“It’s always great to have a good start,” Staal said.

“Whether you do or you don’t, you wanna’ get out as quick as you can and try and get ahead of teams.”

Led by Boychuk, it didn’t take the Hurricanes long to get on the board as a good forecheck allowed Lindholm to pick up the puck deep in the Leafs end and slide a pass to the left faceoff circle where Brett Sutter picked it up before spinning around to find a streaking Boychuk open in the slot.

The Airdrie, Alberta native didn’t miss as his backhander handcuffed Toronto netminder James Reimer and put Carolina ahead 1-0 just 2:33 into the game.

“Yeah, I think it’s up there, for sure,” Boychuk said of playing one of his best games in the NHL.

“It’s nice to contribute and get some goals, but it’s also being feisty out there, creating some energy and playing my role. It’s definitely one of the best games I’ve played.”

The Hurricanes didn’t waste their effort on their first power play of the game as Skinner jumped on a bouncing rebound that beat Reimer after he made the initial save on Staal’s shot from the low slot.

The man-advantage marker came about near the tail end of a Nikolai Kulemin hooking penalty and actually ended up becoming the eventual game-winning goal.

However, it was understandable if that fact was lost in all the hoopla that had 16,583 in attendance witness the Hurricanes’ highest goal output all season that came from so many different players.

Not knowing what eventually would come at the end of sixty minutes, the game was still close early on with Carolina leading by two goals late into the first period.

The Leafs cut the lead in half to 2-1 as Joffrey Lupul found an opening when he was left open at the top of Khudobin’s crease to one-time a pass from Mason Raymond into the net with 5:46 left to play in the period.

The Hurricanes continued their tenacious forechecking efforts which paid dividends again just three minutes later as Staal’s line struck with Dwyer putting a rebound past Reimer after he made the first save on another shot from Staal.

After defenseman Andrej Sekera followed up his rush into the Toronto zone and behind the net, he managed to work the puck to Nathan Gerbe in the faceoff circle before it ended up on Staal’s stick in the slot.

While moving to make a save on a shot attempt from Staal that didn’t get through with traffic increasing in front of him, it seemed as though Reimer lost sight of the puck and couldn’t square up to the shot that Dwyer put on net to give Carolina its two-goal lead back.

Holding a 3-1 advantage to start the second period, Carolina struck again as the newest member of the team, defenseman John-Michael Liles scored his first goal of the season and first in a Carolina uniform, on a setup pass from Boychuk.

After the work of Lindholm helped to turn the puck over in the neutral zone, Boychuk picked it up and gained the Leafs zone on a three-on-one with Sutter and Liles.

Boychuk drew Leafs defenseman Mark Fraser over enough before he saucered a pass diagonally back to Liles who was wide open in the slot to freeze Reimer and snap a shot low past his blocker to put Carolina ahead 4-1.

“I think we showed it tonight that when we’re firing in the same direction, we’re all pullin’ in the same direction and really buyin’ into the message that the coaching staff is giving us, we’ve got a really good team,” Liles said.

“That’s been a pretty nice thing to see thus far in my short time here.”

Carolina added to its lead just 25 seconds into the third period as Staal scored a shorthanded goal which came about as the result of stealing the puck away from Leafs captain Dion Phaneuf along the bench areas.

Skating in on his own, Staal sniped a shot into the top corner of the net that Reimer had no chance to react to and put the Hurricanes ahead 5-1 with the majority of the final period still remaining to play.

As both teams battled back and forth, the Leafs’ frustration came to a head as they took three minor penalties during the final three minutes of the game and afforded Carolina a two-man advantage to score the final goal of the game.

With 1:09 remaining, Lindholm tucked the puck past Reimer to finalize the score after a wide shot by Skinner banked off the end boards only to deflect onto the young Swede’s stick to end the game at 6-1.

“It was an easy goal,” Lindholm said.

Even while the team is riding its first five-game win streak since the 2009-2010 season, the Hurricanes players’ temperament with their recent success was more matter-of-fact rather than exuberant and boisterous.

For Muller, it just showed that his players understood that success on one day is just that, and has to be put aside just as much as failure would be, in order to focus on the next game on the schedule.

“Well, we gotta’ play again tomorrow night,” Muller said.

“It’s the old saying, you lose tonight, you gotta’ drop it, learn from it and move on to tomorrow. If you win, you gotta’ put it aside, pocket the two points and feel good about it. We’ve got another tough opponent tomorrow night, so I think it’s just the NHL with our schedule. As much as you’re excited and they should be, they played well and they had a really good game, but man we’ve gotta’ do it all over again tomorrow night. It’s keepin’ everything clear and understand why we’re doin’ well, but if you don’t come in to work tomorrow night and put the same effort in, you won’t get the same result.”