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Ward shines as Hurricanes blank Maple Leafs

Jan 20, 2009 - 4:26 AM TORONTO (Ticker) -- A silent offense was not going to stop a season-high slide for the Carolina Hurricanes, so goaltender Cam Ward took matters into his own hands.

Ward turned aside all 35 shots he faced as the Hurricanes skated to a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.

Defenseman Joe Corvo scored a power-play goal and Chad LaRose added another tally for the Hurricanes, who ended a season-high, five-game losing streak. They had scored two or fewer goals in four of those contests.

Ward turned aside six shots in the first period, 14 in the second and 15 in the third to secure his second shutout of the season and eighth career.

"It was nice to get the win; this was a big game for our hockey club," Ward said. "Hopefully we can build off this."

Vesa Toskala stopped 32 shots for Toronto, which defeated the Hurricanes, 6-4, on Thursday in Raleigh, North Carolina.

"We're trying to make the equivalent of a 60-foot putt instead of simplifying our game," Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson said.

Carolina secured eight victories in 11 contests from December 16-January 6, capped by a season-high, four-game winning streak. But it has since fizzled, enduring the team's longest slide since going 0-4-1 from December 5-15, 2006.

"We just had to win a game," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "We were going so well and feeling so good and then, boom, we didn't just get beat - we lost five straight times and you're wondering what's going on."

The 2006 Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Ward had surrendered 23 goals during the team's recent skid after giving up just six during its previous winning run.

He gave up five goals to the Maple Leafs Thursday, and entered this contest 5-5-1 with a 3.53 goals-against average in 11 career matchups against them.

"We needed the win here first and foremost and we needed a big game out of our goaltender and he made some big saves," Maurice said.

Yet the 24-year-old shined in this one, and received all the support he would need when Corvo converted passes from defenseman Joni Pitkanen and captain Rod Brind'Amour with 3:46 left in the second by firing a slap shot from above the right faceoff circle that sailed past Toskala.

"It was huge," Corvo said. "It was a game that coming in, we thought we were going to put forth a good effort and we did."

Toskala, who surrendered two or fewer tallies for just the second time in seven games, was solved again when LaRose lifted a backhander into the vacant net with five seconds remaining in the session.

"It was getting toward the end of a long shift there and (I received) a nice pass there by (Matt Cullen)," LaRose said. "I just found myself in front all alone."

Carolina had four road losses over its slide and was in danger of losing six straight games in regulation for the first time since March 26-April 6, 2003.