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Whitney's hat trick leads Hurricanes in rout of Flames

Mar 7, 2009 - 3:49 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Ray Whitney recorded his third career hat trick with three power-play goals Friday as the Carolina Hurricanes blasted the Calgary Flames, 6-1.

Sergei Samsonov, Erik Cole and Scott Walker also scored as Carolina continued its playoff surge, winning for the sixth time in its last eight games to pull within one point of a three-way tie for sixth place.

Florida, Pittsburgh and the Rangers are all tied in the sixth spot with 74 points.

"We definitely fed off the energy the crowd," Cole said after his return to the ice for Carolina after spending the first six seasons of his career there. "We had some good step early, and we're getting in on our forecheck and I think that when we're skating like that, you're going to be able to create some offense."

Cole, who went to Edmonton in an offseason trade, rejoined the Hurricanes after a deadline deal Wednesday with the Oilers.

Matt Cullen and Eric Staal each assisted on a pair of goals and goaltender Cam Ward stopped 21 shots as the Hurricanes continued their offensive onslaught of late.

"I think it just goes to show the potential we have as a team," Ward said. "It was a true test against arguably one of the top teams in the league, and we played a complete 60 minutes tonight."

Calgary captain Jarome Iginla ruined Ward's bid for a shutout with 3:49 left in the third period, putting the Flames on the scoreboard.

"We weren't ready to match them physically and their desperation," Iginla said. "You've got (to) give them credit. They came out and they were very physical. They were skating. Since we weren't ready, they reloaded and came back at us."

During its stretch over the last eight games, Carolina has scored four goals or more five times and have won four straight contests on home ice.

Whitney opened the scoring with 5:09 remaining in the opening period. Samsonov and Cole scored 42 seconds apart before the end of the session as the Hurricanes took a 3-0 lead into the first intermission.

"The key, it seemed to the game, there were eight or nine minutes (in the first period) that were just a grind," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "We handled that stretch and we're not down one. There was a stretch of hockey where we were pretty good defensively."

Curtis McElhinney made 27 saves for the Flames, who lost for just the second time in their last eight contests.

"I think our team has to really tighten up defensively," Calgary coach Mike Keenan said. "We weren't as ready as we should be in this back-to-back game. We came off a pretty solid effort yesterday (5-1 win at Philadelphia) and we didn't respond early enough."

Whitney extended the lead to 4-0 7:58 into the middle period and Walker pushed the advantage to five late in the session.

The Hurricanes only managed four shots in the third, but Whitney scored his 300th career goal 4:08 into the third before Iginla spoiled the spotless night for Ward.

"I wouldn't have thought 300," Whitney said. "I've been bought out twice, waivers twice. I've seen it all, that's for sure, so 300, I'll take it. I'll take that, 300. Probably a lot of people didn't think that would happen, myself included."