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Whitney helps Hurricanes rally past Panthers

Feb 17, 2008 - 4:44 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- The Carolina Panthers did not need Rod Brind'Amour. Not with the Florida Panthers in town.

Ray Whitney scored the decisive tally, capping a three-goal outburst that helped the Hurricanes rally for a 5-4 victory over the Panthers on Saturday.

Carolina played its first game without Brind'Amour, the team's captain and second-leading scorer who is out for the season after tearing his ACL on Thursday.

"We don't really have any other choice," Whitney said of playing without Brind'Amour. "Obviously, when you lose Roddy, that's a big blow to us. But tonight, what you saw was guys like Trevor Letowski getting a chance to play." Even without Brind'Amour, Whitney and company found a way to extend the Panthers' woes here.

All-Star Eric Staal and Letowski scored 2:03 apart early in the third and John Grahame stopped 10 shots in relief of an ineffective Cam Ward as the Hurricanes posted their 13th straight home win over the Panthers.

"We want more," Staal said. "We want to continue this and compete the way we did tonight. If we compete the way we were, I think it's going to result in a lot of wins down the stretch."

Letowski also had a pair of assists for the Hurricanes, who have won three straight and four of five.

Meanwhile, Nathan Horton scored twice - once on a penalty shot - and Stephen Weiss had two assists for Florida, which has not won in Raleigh since December 6, 2002.

"We just didn't prepare ourselves for it and realize that you have to do the simple things to protect the middle and keep the puck out of your house," Panthers defenseman Bryan Allen said. "It's pretty disappointing right now. The opportunity was there for us and we set ourselves up for it, but we just didn't prevail there in the end."

After Carolina rallied from a two-goal deficit to forge a 4-4 tie, Whitney put it ahead with 4:21 left, as he took a pass from newly acquired defenseman Joe Corvo and fired a wrist shot past All-Star goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

Vokoun blamed defensive lapses for Florida's collapse.

"It's unbelievable," Vokoun said. "I don't think words can describe it. It just shows you our lack of commitment to defense. Many times it didn't cost us, but today, it cost us dearly. We basically had the game and gave it to them. There is no secret to it."

The Hurricanes trailed, 4-2, after Horton converted a penalty shot at 4:11 of the third. But Staal and Letowski quickly erased the deficit and evened the game with 12:22 remaining.

Letowski's goal at 7:38 came just minutes after Carolina had an apparent game-tying tally waived off after video review.

"We just kept fighting," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "Resilient, I guess, is the word. I liked the way we were playing when we were down 4-2. We had an edge in skating and just couldn't seem to get ahead tonight until the end."

Horton did his best to help the Panthers try to get a rare win here.

The 22-year-old, who has seven goals in as many games, snapped a 2-2 tie with 6:37 to go in the second period by firing a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle that beat Ward to the left side.

That spelled the end of the night for Ward, who made just 10 saves.

Defenseman Wade Brookbank and Sergei Samsonov also scored for Carolina, which regained sole possession of first place in the Southeast Division. The Hurricanes lead the Atlanta Thrashers and Washington Capitals by two points and are four ahead of the Panthers.

Vokoun stopped 27 shots for Florida, which had its three-game winning streak snapped.

Florida coach Jacques Martin was disappointed with the number of missed assignments that allowed Carolina to climb back in the game.

"You look at all their goals - a tip, a shot from the point right to the guy at the front of the net that was tipped in and then a guy with a missed assignment on the backcheck," Martin said. "We had people back but not aware of the late guy."