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'Canes honor Brind'Amour, hope to solve Flyers

Feb 18, 2011 - 4:27 PM (Sports Network) - Scoring depth has made the Flyers one of the hardest teams to beat in the NHL. That sort of dominance isn't anything new to the Hurricanes, who haven't beaten the Eastern Conference leaders in nine games.

Philadelphia tries to extend its 18-game point streak versus the Carolina Hurricanes with a third straight win this evening in a matchup at RBC Center.

This will be the last time this season that the Hurricanes will get a chance to earn a regular-season victory over the Flyers. Philadelphia has won all three meetings this year by a 13-4 margin and nine straight overall. The Flyers haven't lost in regulation to the Hurricanes since Dec. 19, 2006, going 15-0-3 since.

Philadelphia has also won seven straight trips to Carolina and is hoping to avoid its first loss there since an overtime setback on March 22, 2007.

Flyers forward Jeff Carter has dominated the Hurricanes, posting 10 goals and 19 points over a 12-game point streak against them. He recorded a hat trick in an 8-1 victory at Carolina on Nov. 11.

The Hurricanes will honor former captain Rod Brind'Amour before the game by sending his No. 17 into the rafters. Brind'Amour ranks 16th in league history with 1,484 games played, notching 452 goals, 732 assists and 1,184 points in that span.

The two-time Selke Trophy winner spent eight-plus seasons with the Flyers before getting traded to the Hurricanes during the 1999-2000 campaign. He spent his next nine-plus seasons in Carolina, winning a Stanley Cup with the club in 2006 with current Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette.

Philadelphia has won five of its last six and is 15-4 in 2011 following Wednesday's 4-2 victory over Florida. The Flyers come into this matchup five points ahead of the Penguins for first place in the East and trail the NHL- leading Canucks by two points.

Mike Richards scored for the first time in 11 games in Wednesday's victory, while Andreas Nodl snapped a 19-game goal drought. James van Riemsdyk also scored and Danny Briere added an empty-net goal and two assists as the Flyers nearly blew a 3-0 third-period lead.

"It's not the way we wanted to end the game, but we survived." Briere said, "At the end of the day, that's what matters the most."

Kris Versteeg assisted on Richards' goal for his first point in two games since being acquired by the Flyers from the Maple Leafs. Sergei Bobrovsky ended with 33 saves in the win.

The Flyers were without Ville Leino due to a lower-body injury and the forward is listed as day-to-day.

Philadelphia has won the first two games of a four-game road trip and eight of its last 10 overall as the guest to improve its NHL-leading road record to 19-6-3.

Carolina, meanwhile, returns home after a 1-2-2 road trip that included a setback in Philadelphia on Feb. 10. The Hurricanes began the swing with a 3-2 overtime setback in New Jersey on Feb. 8 and capped it with another 3-2 setback on Wednesday in the Garden State.

Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu lit the lamp in the third period to account for the final score for the Hurricanes, who have dropped six of eight overall and are two points up on Buffalo and Atlanta for the eighth seed in the East.

Cam Ward, making his 17th consecutive start, stopped 19-of-22 shots in defeat.

"Our quickness just wasn't there for whatever reason," said Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice, whose club begins a four-game homestand tonight and has won six of its last eight at RBC Center.