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Ward, Hurricanes blank Rangers for fourth straight win

Mar 10, 2009 - 2:45 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Cam Ward made 27 saves to record his fifth shutout of the season as the Carolina Hurricanes skated to their fourth consecutive victory, a 3-0 triumph over the New York Rangers on Monday.

Defenseman Joe Corvo, captain Rod Brind'Amour and Tuomo Ruutu scored and Ray Whitney collected two assists for the Hurricanes, who jumped over the Rangers in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Carolina (36-27-5), which has won seven of its last nine contests, moved up to the sixth spot in the East. New York (34-25-8) dropped to ninth place.

"It was a playoff game, in our eyes," Ward said. "Look at the standings, everybody knows what's at stake. They're coming off a big win against Boston last night, and it was important that we had a strong effort tonight, and we did."

Stephen Valiquette turned aside 33 shots for the Rangers, who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

"We just didn't create enough offense and we didn't create enough forechecking," New York coach John Tortorella said. "It has nothing to do with back-to-back. They were just the better team. I felt they were a little bit quicker than we were."

Ward stopped seven shots in the first period, 13 more in the next and seven in the third to complete his 11th career blanking.

"The Rangers came out playing very aggressive, trying to force everything, and we stayed composed and stayed out of the box in the first period, which was huge," Ward said. "It was a very, very solid game for us."

Corvo opened the scoring at 9:01 of the middle session, poking a rebound past Valiquette during a scramble in front of the net.

Brind'Amour, who was playing in his 600th game with the Hurricanes, doubled the advantage at 3:41 of the third with a power-play goal. It was his 10th tally of the season.

"Roddy Brind'Amour's last four games have been the kind that I remember from him," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said.