Hurricanes 5 - 3 Wild
Final
  for this game

Hurricanes rally past Wild

Mar 17, 2012 - 9:40 PM St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Tim Brent scored a tiebreaking goal in the third period and the visiting Carolina Hurricanes rallied to beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-3.

Drayson Bowman registered two goals and an assist for the Hurricanes, who have won back-to-back games for the first time since February 13-17.

Brian Boucher earned his first win of the season with a 23-save performance. Carolina's backup goaltender missed a large portion of the season with a lower-body injury. Saturday marked just his eighth appearance -- sixth start.

Kyle Brodziak had a goal and two assists for Minnesota, which fell to 1-7-1 in its last nine games. The Wild have lost five straight in regulation at Xcel Energy Center for the first time in franchise history.

Matt Hackett stopped 29 shots in defeat.

Minnesota led 3-1 when Erik Christensen tapped in Brodziak's pass for a power- play goal at the 15:24 mark of the second period. But Bowman responded 1:50 later as his pass to Brandon Sutter deflected off the skate of Wild forward Devin Setoguchi and behind Hackett.

Sutter and Brent put Carolina ahead with goals 48 seconds apart. Sutter beat Hackett with a backhander on a breakaway, and Brent scored on a shot from the point that made its way through heavy traffic at 8:04.

Chad LaRose added an empty-net tally for Carolina with 1:15 to play.

"I thought we got better as a team as the game went on and made good on our chances," Boucher said.

The Hurricanes opened the scoring 62 seconds into the contest. Bowman picked off a pass by Minnesota defenseman Clayton Stoner in the Wild's zone and fired a backhander past a surprised Hackett.

Brodziak tied it off a feed from Steven Kampfer at the 7:08 mark of the first period, then collected the primary assist on Nick Johnson's goal 12:33 into the middle stanza.

Game Notes

Carolina played without Jeff Skinner after the 19-year-old forward, who leads the team with 20 goals, was suspended two games for kicking St. Louis' Scott Nichol on Thursday. He will also miss Sunday's game in Winnipeg...The Hurricanes were 0-3-1 with a tie in their last five trips to Minnesota.






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