• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Hurricanes dominate Bruins to snap two-game slide

Nov 24, 2006 - 7:53 PM BOSTON (Ticker) -- The Carolina Hurricanes managed to end both their road trip and losing streak at the expense of the Boston Bruins.

John Grahame made 25 saves and five different Hurricanes scored en route to a 5-1 victory over the Bruins.

After reeling off five wins in six games from November 9-18, the Hurricanes had fallen on hard times of late, dropping the first two contests on their current three-game road trip.

Coming off losses to the New York Islanders and New York Rangers in which it was outscored 8-2, Carolina dominated play against Boston and improved to 10-5-1 in its last 16 games.

The Hurricanes outshot the Bruins, 15-10, in the first period and Eric Staal gave them a 1-0 lead with a power-play tally with 1:24 left in the period. Justin Williams and Erik Cole extended the lead to 3-0 with goals coming just nine seconds apart in the second period.

"The first period wasn't that bad. We had some chances and they had some chances but the second period really blew up in our faces," Bruins coach Dave Lewis said. "When you play the team that won the Stanley Cup last year, you can't give them opportunities and when I say that, I mean you can't turn the puck over. We turned the puck over way too much in the neutral zone, in our zone and in the attacking zone."

"I think the (two goals nine seconds apart) were just the result of the way the game was played for us," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "I think it was the result of the effort we put in for 60 minutes. We generated a lot of scoring chances. Those ones dropped when others didn't."

Boston goaltender Tim Thomas was pulled in favor of Philippe Sauve after Cole's tally. Thomas made 22 saves on 25 shots and Sauve stopped 13-of-15 shots.

Lewis said he did not pull Thomas because the goaltender was having an off night. Rather it was because of the play of Thomas' teammates.

"We had 19 players that were really off their game tonight," Lewis said. "(Thomas) was the one guy that had his game."

While the Bruins' had problems in goal, Grahame was sharp for the Hurricanes. Patrice Bergeron scored a power-play goal with 4:07 left in the second period to help Boston avoid a shutout.

"We had come off a couple of frustrating performances, and I think the guys really buckled down and played well," Grahame said. "Once we got the one, we wanted to keep pressing the game and taking it to them and not sit back, and I think we were able to do that."

Eric Belanger and Andrew Ladd added third-period goals for Carolina, which outshot Boston, 40-26.