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Staal tallies as Ward, Hurricanes shut out Bruins

Jan 9, 2008 - 4:08 AM By Brian Devine PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) -- With his playing time being cut of late, Cam Ward came out on Tuesday and made his bid to remain the top goaltender for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Ward stopped 19 shots for his first shutout since December 3 and Eric Staal netted his 23rd goal of the season to lead the Hurricanes to a 1-0 victory over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Entering Tuesday's contest ranked 30th in the league in goals-against average at 2.84 and owning a 3.56 mark over his previous nine starts, Ward had been reduced to splitting time with backups John Grahame and Michael Leighton in net.

"It is one that you have to rise to the occasion," Ward said. "The guys played extremely well in front of me, but there are going to be chances, and that is where as a goaltender, I have to make that big save when it matters most.

"Tonight, I was able to do that, and it is a huge confidence builder for me. There was no doubt in my mind I could overcome this little adversity. But the thing is, now I have to play like this each and every night."

The Bruins' anemic attack failed to put much pressure on the struggling netminder, and Ward grew stronger as the game went on. Facing just eight shots in the first period, six in the second and five in the third, Ward was able to withstand a furious 6-on-4 situation in the final 18 seconds to seal his third shutout of the season and fifth career.

"He played well. We needed that," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "He had a couple of big saves in the first period. There was one redirect that was real good, and then the big ones at the end."

"When you don't work, you don't win, and this team has not been capable of working 60 minutes for a while now," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "It is something that has been addressed in the dressing room. But until we manage to do that, we are going to have our ups and downs. There weren't that many players that could walk out of that dressing room tonight with their heads up."

Tim Thomas nearly was Ward's equal, but Staal managed to slip one past him in the second period.

Staal gathered the puck behind the net and circled around to the front past defenseman Mark Stuart. He released a shot from the right faceoff dot to beat Thomas between the pads with 1:40 left in the session.

"Got it behind the net and got a chance to get it right off the wall," Staal said. "I was kind of left alone and had a few options, and I figured I'd just throw it to the net, and it went between his legs."

"Eric Staal comes out of the corner, and he is good at that," Thomas said. "In a weird way, he kind of throws the puck instead of shoots it, and it makes it hard to read where it is going to go."

It was the eighth goal in the last 12 contests for Staal, who has nine tallies in 14 career games against the Bruins.

Thomas made 27 saves - including 16 in the decisive second period - for Boston, which saw its three-game winning streak come to a halt.

"I thought he played well tonight, made a lot of big saves," Boston defenseman Dennis Wideman said. "But their goalie made a lot of big saves, too. Timmy played well. Obviously, we want to play better in front of him."

The Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes have beaten the Bruins in both of their meetings this season and improved to 8-3-1 against teams from the Northeast Division.