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Wesley's first of season helps Hurricanes avoid bad loss

Feb 23, 2007 - 5:33 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Glen Wesley has not contributed much offensively this season. The veteran defenseman came through at the right time for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Wesley scored his first goal of the season 16 seconds into overtime as the Hurricanes wasted an early lead but managed to post a 3-2 victory over the lowly Philadelphia Flyers.

Captain Rod Brind'Amour and Andrew Ladd staked Carolina to a 2-0 lead with first-period tallies, but Philadelphia battled back to knot the contest on goals by Dmitry Afanasenkov in the middle session and defenseman Alexandre Picard with four minutes to go in the third.

With Brind'Amour still serving a tripping penalty at the start of overtime, former Flyer Justin Williams led a shorthanded rush down the left wing and cut to the slot before dropping the puck for Wesley.

"Willie made a great play in our own end and we kind of tied them up and he ended up beating their guy to a loose puck," Wesley said, referring to the start of the shorthanded rush. "He took off and Commie (defenseman Mike Commodore) took off with him. It was an opportunity that we have to take advantage of."

The 38-year-old unleashed a wrist shot that sneaked just inside the left goalpost, giving him his first goal in 83 games and helping the Hurricanes avoid their fourth loss in six games.

"Willie was kind of coming across, so I wouldn't have been able to go across the grain," Wesley said. "So I tried to shoot it short side and I don't know if it hit the defenseman's stick or whatever."

"When he shoots from there, you don't have time to think it's going wide," said Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymaki, who was leaning to the wrong side on the goal. "Any goalie will try to make that save. There are probably 10 saves that go wide or too high that you don't have time to think about. I just overreacted a little bit. The puck was a little low when he shot it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be."

Wesley last tallied on February 5, 2006 against Boston.

"Not great odds, but it happened tonight," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said of the shorthanded overtime tally. "Both of our defensemen jumped into the rush on that play, so I'm glad it went in. If it didn't, they were coming back the other way strong."

Williams recorded two assists and John Grahame made 33 saves to post his first win since January 16 against Florida.

"You've got to start to get on a run, and you've got to start somewhere," Grahame said. "So hopefully, better things will come from this."

Afanasenkov and Picard each added an assist for the Flyers, who have dropped three in a row.

"It's disappointing because you have to be ready," Philadelphia coach John Stevens said. "I'm certainly happy about the way we battled back from 2-0 early on the road. But we have to start finding ways to take advantage of these opportunities."

"We had a chance to win at the end, and then to lose it, it's a little heartbreaking," Flyers defenseman Derian Hatcher added. "We definitely had a chance and we could have won the game. ... I can't say it was a bad effort."

Brind'Amour opened the scoring against his former team just over 13 minutes into the game, firing a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that glanced off the glove of Niittymaki and into the net. The tally was the Carolina captain's fourth during a three-game goal-scoring streak and 20th of the season.

"I haven't thought about it," Brind'Amour said of reaching the 20-goal plateau for the second straight season and 12th time in his career. "It doesn't mean that much, really. It might mean something when I'm done and I can look back and say, 'That was pretty good, I got some goals.' But at this point, it means absolutely nothing."

Ladd doubled the lead with 1:43 to go in the first, banging in a loose puck from the top of the crease for his seventh of the campaign.

"You never know what would have happened, but a stronger start would have helped," Philadelphia's Mike Richards said. "It's not like we had a poor start. It's just as the period went on, we got worse instead of getting better. That shouldn't happen."

Afanasenkov halved the deficit at 10:05 of the middle session. After carrying down the left wing, the Russian pulled up in the faceoff circle and ripped a shot into the top right corner for his seventh tally.

Grahame preserved the slim advantage by stopping rookie Stefan Ruzicka on a breakaway with less than 14 minutes to go in the third, but he was unable to make a key stop later in the period.

While driving to the doorstep, Richards got off a shot that hit the outside of the net. Picard followed the play and banked the loose puck off Grahame from the right side with exactly four minutes left to forge a 2-2 tie.

"I saw the side was open and I shot it," Picard said. "We got a couple of good breaks and we got back into the game."