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Brind'Amour stars on special night as Hurricanes roll

Dec 30, 2006 - 6:41 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Rod Brind'Amour was honored before the game for a recent accomplishment. The Carolina Hurricanes captain did his best to help his team accomplish what they set out to do in the contest.

Brind'Amour scored the tying goal 4 1/2 minutes into the second period and set up Justin Williams' winner less than three minutes later as the Hurricanes posted their sixth win in seven games, a 4-2 triumph over the Anaheim Ducks.

The leader of the defending Stanley Cup champions, Brind'Amour received a pregame tribute for becoming the 71st player in NHL history to reach the 1,000-point plateau earlier this season.

"It was great. It gave me goosebumps standing on the bench watching that," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "Just an amazing career still unfolding, but for coaches, fans and players in the building, it was a real treat tonight."

After Carolina fell behind, 2-1, the veteran displayed the form that helped guide his club to the title last season.

Just 69 seconds after Teemu Selanne gave Anaheim the lead with his second goal of the game, Brind'Amour forged a 2-2 tie by deking a defender in the high slot and beating rookie goaltender Mike Wall with a wrist shot at 4:31 of the middle period.

"It was a special night for Roddy," Hurricanes goaltender Cam Ward said. "He played with great effort."

Only 2:26 later, Brind'Amour assisted on the go-ahead tally by Williams, who swept the puck past Wall after a cross-slot pass by Ray Whitney was slowed down. It was the fifth goal in six games for Williams, who had his eight-game points streak snapped in Thursday's loss to Buffalo.

Despite his strong performance, Brind'Amour was quick to critique himself.

"I wasn't as focused as I thought I should have been," said Brind'Amour, who received a pair of crystal trophies from the NHL as well as a gold-plated stick and a vacation trip from the Hurricanes. "It was one of those nights when your team picks you up. I wasn't great by any means, but everybody picked me up."

Whitney had a goal and two assists, defenseman David Tanabe set up a pair of tallies and Williams added an assist for the Hurricanes, who have won six of seven.

"I thought we controlled the play when we were on the ice," Williams said of his line. "It's ridiculously tough when the other team's top line is on and you have to play in their end. It can be frustrating."

"They got hot," Laviolette said of the unite of Williams, Whitney and Brind'Amour. "They're getting scoring chances and cashing in on a lot of those chances. They're three skilled players and I think they are finding a groove with each other."

Selanne notched his sixth two-goal game of the season and Wall made 23 saves and picked up an assist for Anaheim.

"It's my third NHL appearance, and every game, I'm going to get better," Wall said. "I just need to be more patient and more poised and let my talent take over. ... Tonight was a step for me in the right direction. I'm definitely going to be a better goaltender because of this experience."

"He played great," Anaheim defenseman Chris Pronger said. "You look at that first period and we didn't give him a whole lot of help. He came up with some big stops to keep it 1-0. He held his ground in the second period and played well."

The Ducks suffered their third regulation loss in six games after sustaining just three in their first 34 contests.

"You're not going to win 82 of them, but as long as you learn from the games you lose and from your mistakes," Pronger said. "We've come a long way, but we've got a long way to go. The first half is almost over. We pride ourselves in coming to play every single night."

Whitney opened the scoring for Carolina, which went 3-for-6 on the power play. With Pronger in the penalty box, Whitney buried a one-timer from the left faceoff circle at 7:42 of the first period for his 14th goal.

"The difference was special teams," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said.

Selanne knotted the game 41 seconds into the middle session with a slap shot from the top of the slot. The "Finnish Flash" gave Anaheim a 2-1 edge less than three minutes later, beating Ward to the short side with a one-timer from the top of the left circle.

"When they got those two goals, bang-bang, it could have been easy for us to back down and kind of mope around, but we didn't," said Ward, who made 25 saves. "We rallied back and got a couple of big goals that gave us the lead going into the third."

However, Brind'Amour cashed in during a man advantage and Williams tallied at 6:57 to put the Hurricanes ahead, 3-2.