Ray Whitney scored in overtime to give the Canes a 3-2 victory in Sunrise, Florida. 

This win was huge.  Florida needed this win much more than we did, but in the end, we got the 2 points and now occupy 5th place, with a 6 point lead over the 8th and 9th place Canadiens and Panthers.

We've got 7 games left.  If we can win 3, we're in the playoffs.  Go on a 5 game losing streak and we might be in trouble.

Go Canes!

Box Score

The Carolina Hurricanes wrapped up the southeast division championshp last night with a 3-2 win over the streaking Florida Panthers.  The Panthers, who had beaten the Canes twice in Florida a few weeks ago had won 7 games in a row.

It looked at first like we were gonna get more of the same - Florida scored first and early.  The Canes continued to be somewhat sloppy with the puck but Martin Gerber did the job keeping most of the pucks out of the net.

Craig Adams goal was one of the coolest I've seen all year - mostly because it involved just downright embarassing Roberto Luongo.  Adams had a breakaway rush on Luongo but it looked like Luongo was going to get to the puck before Adams could get to it and shoot it.  Well, he did, but Luongo does have a weakness, and that's playing the puck.  Luango went to backhand the puck harmlessly to the corner, and he basically whiffed on it, leaving the puck there for Craig to fire into the net.  It was awesome.

Carolina plays tonight at Atlanta - another team on the outside of the playoffs looking in.

GO CANES!

Box Score

Another defensive struggle pitting Martin Gerber against Roberto Luongo, and Gerber and the Canes came out on top once again.

I was out of town and didn't see this game unfortunately.  I was in Orlando, where I seriously considered driving to Ft. Lauderdale to see the game, but couldn't justify it.  And in Orlando, the local sports channel was showing the Tampa Bay Lightning instead (understandable since Tampa is only 1 hour away while Ft. Lauderdale is 4 hours)

GO CANES!

Box Score

Rod Brind'Amour helped Carolina stay perfect at home with the first goal of the game - which turned out to be the game winner.  The game was scoreless going into the third period.  Niclas Wallin added an insurance goal to seal the deal for the final score of 2-0.

Staal was quiet tonight but he did manage an assist on Wallin's goal, and I was happy about that.

The crowd was decent.  I don't know how many people were there because the attendance hasn't been posted yet.  Not as many as the Philly game last Friday, but still pretty good.  Maybe 17,000.  It was a pretty quiet crowd though until the scoring started.  REALLY quiet.

I don't know if the Canes were flat - I mean they did outshoot the Panthers in the first period and played great defense, but there just wasn't a lot going on.  A few breakaways, but this game was definately less exciting than others.

Well, at least we didn't trail in this one!

The Canes head north to Buffalo for a meeting on Wednesday, then back south to Florida for Friday's game before coming back home on Saturday for their first meeting with the Trashers.

GO CANES!