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Williams, Whitney lead Hurricanes past Capitals

Jan 27, 2007 - 5:38 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Justin Williams and Ray Whitney got the Carolina Hurricanes offense off to a strong second-half start.

Williams had two goals and an assist and Whitney added a tally and set up three others to lead the Hurricanes to a 6-2 triumph over the Washington Capitals.

Williams provided a 2-0 edge midway through the first period when he rifled a slap shot from the right side of the faceoff circle past the stick of goaltender Brent Johnson for his 24th tally of the season.

"We needed to solidify ourselves back on top in the conference where we belong," Williams said. "That started with tonight."

Washington answered with goals by Chris Clark and All-Star Alexander Ovechkin but could not muster any further offense.

Williams tallied the eventual game-winner 5:03 into the second period on a one-timer he rocketed past the right side of Johnson.

"If you look at our scores most nights you've got to give credit a lot to Whitney and Brind'Amour," Williams said. "They seem to be all around the score sheet every night. Whoever plays with those two has a big night."

Cam Ward stopped 24 shots for the Hurricanes, who won despite going 0-for-9 on the power play.

"The guys played hard, they skated well from the top of the circle down offensively, which I think is important," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said.

Captain Rod Brind'Amour and Eric Staal each tallied a goal and had an assist for Carolina, which outshot Washington, 41-26.

"We haven't had the greatest of starts lately," Brind'Amour said. "We wanted to get playing a more consistent game over 60 minutes. You can't do that without a good start."

Cory Stillman gave the Hurricanes a two-goal advantage as he one-timed a slap shot past the glove of Johnson 4:41 into the second period. Whitney tallied 86 seconds later to put the game out of reach.

Johnson made 35 saves for the Capitals, who were 1-for-7 with the extra skater.

"The score was 5-2 last time here, and that wasn't indicative of the play," Washington coach Glen Hanlon said. "Once we got behind, they said we were going to catch up, or it's going to be very difficult to catch up, especially when we ended up being shorthanded nine times. We had seven power plays. We had our chances too."