Devils 5 - 2 Hurricanes
Final
  for this game

Hurricanes aim to sweep home-and-home set with Devils

Nov 29, 2013 - 4:09 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Carolina Hurricanes take aim at a third straight victory on Friday night and a sweep of their home-and-home series with the New Jersey Devils.

The Hurricanes' consecutive wins come following a four-game slide and they took the road portion of this set with the Devils 4-3 on Wednesday.

Patrick Dwyer scored shorthanded as part of a three-goal second period for Carolina and his tally ended up being the difference. Tuomo Ruutu and Ron Hainsey also scored in the middle frame, while Justin Faulk tallied in the first period.

Eric Staal had an assist to push his point streak to seven straight games (3 goals, 6 assists) and Cam Ward was solid with 19 saves.

"Despite the low shots, I felt like I was active," Ward said following his fourth start since coming back from a lower-body injury. "It seemed like they had a good cycle game in the offensive zone but our team's defense did a great job of keeping everything out to the perimeter."

The Hurricanes have won three of four and four of their last six games versus the Devils.

Travis Zajac, Andy Greene and Jaromir Jagr each scored once for the Devils, who have dropped their last three games, while Martin Brodeur yielded all four goals on 22 shots faced.

"I don't think we have to change much, we just have to put the puck on the net somehow," Jagr said.

Jagr's goal was the 691st of his career, breaking a tie with Mario Lemieux for ninth on the NHL's all-time list. He is just one goal behind Steve Yzerman for eighth place and three back of seventh-place Mark Messier.

The 41-year-old Jagr has tallied 35 goals and 107 points in 75 career games versus the Hurricanes franchise.

The Devils are also scheduled to host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday, meaning Brodeur and Cory Schneider should both see action over the next two days. Brodeur fell to 38-16-1 with five ties, nine shutouts and a 2.07 goals against average in his career versus Carolina, while Schneider has split two starts versus the club with a 2.51 GAA.

Ward is 9-11-2 with a 2.73 GAA in 22 career starts versus the Devils.






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