• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Rob Niedermayer scores twice as Ducks crush Hurricanes

Dec 1, 2008 - 3:59 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Rob Niedermayer scored twice and Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and two assists to lead the Anaheim Ducks to a 4-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.

Teemu Selanne's tally sparked a three-goal third period and Jonas Hiller stopped 36 shots for the Ducks, who have won four straight.

Selanne gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead at 7:16 of the third when he tipped in defenseman Chris Pronger's blast from the point.

"The power-play goal was the starting point," Niedermayer said of Selanne's goal. "It got the momentum in our favor. Then you get a two-goal lead and then a three-goal lead and that deflates a team a little bit."

Niedermayer scored 69 seconds later with a backhand shot on a give-and-go with Brendan Morrison. Niedermayer capped the scoring with 5:05 remaining.

"It felt great," Niedermayer said. "They were on a couple of real nice feeds."

Matt Cullen scored the lone goal for Carolina, which lost goaltender Cam Ward to an undisclosed lower-body injury after one period.

Ward, who stopped 12 of 13 shots, gave way to Michael Leighton to start the second period. Leighton, who stopped 11 shots, struggled in relief and Anaheim beat Carolina for the first time in the last three meetings.

Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette said Ward was removed for precautionary reasons.

The Ducks struck first at 1:54 of the first as Getzlaf beat Ward with a shot from the right wing that deflected off his shoulder and dribbled in. It was Getzlaf's 10th goal of the campaign.

Carolina, which has surrendered the first goal in each of its last 10 games, took only five minutes to level the contest as Cullen tallied at 6:48 of the period.

From that point until the start of the third period, Carolina dominated the game. The Hurricanes recorded the first 10 shots of the second period and didn't allow a shot on goal until midway through the session. Hiller did all he could to keep the Ducks in the game.

"Sometimes you have a bad period like our second one," Hiller said. "At the end, it is my job to keep the team in the game and give them a chance to win. That's what happened in the third."