The Carolina Hurricanes look to continue their winning streak tonight as they face the Florida Panthers who have won both meetings at home against the Hurricanes this season. The Hurricanes are winners of seven in a row and can jump the Panthers with a win tonight. Justin Peters will get his 4th NHL start tonight and is 3-0-0 with a GAA of 1.34 and a save percentage of .957. If the Hurricanes are to continue their streak tonight against the Panthers they will need to continue to recieve good goaltending and will need the continued good offense to beat a goalie like Tomas Vokun. Tonight and tomorrow nights games are two big ones. The Hurricanes sit 7 points out of a playoff spot and play two of the teams they will need to jump, the Panthers and Thrashers. I think the Hurricanes will come out firing and this should be a good one.

News & Notes: Hurricanes have won 7 in a row
The home team has won every matchup between Carolina and Flordia this season
Justin Peters will make his 4th NHL start tonight

Injuries: CAR Cam Ward Back
FLA Nathan Horton Broken Tibia

Prediction: CAR 5 FLA 3

After two weeks of great Olympic hockey the Hurricanes get back to the grind tonight as they finish their season series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Hurricanes take the ice tonight with possibly the healthiest line-up of the season. One of the big stories is will this be the last game in a Hurricanes uniform for Ray Whitney. Ray Whitney is one of the few Hurricanes left from the Stanley Cup and a fan favorite that many would not want to see go. Tonight we will also get a look at a new face in Alexandre Picard who will replace Aaron ward who will be a healthy scratch tonight. The Hurricanes were riding a five game winning streak before the Olympic break and look to continue it tonight. Tonight is the battle of the easts to worst teams and lets hope the Hurricanes continue to keep rolling post Olympic break

Prediction CAR 4 TOR 2 F

10:25pm Almost 3/4ths the way through the first period. Both teams seem cautious and Slovakia is 0-2 on the power play

10:31pm Team Finland heading to their first power play just under 2 minutes left in the opening period, pretty even game so far.

10:32pm Team Finland gets on the board first with slap shot from Hometown Canuck Salo 1-0 Team Finland

10:36pm We have reached the first intermission with Team Finland leading 1-0, The shots on goal during the first period were Finland 12 and Slovakia 5

10:51pm Starting the 2nd period

10:56pm Team Slovakia seems to have more of push here in the 2nd period out shooting Finland 3-2 5 minutes in, still 1-0 Finland

10:57pm Gaborik takes a delay of game period and Finland heads to their 2nd power play with just over 15 minutes to play in the 2nd period

11:01pm 2nd Power Play unsuccessful for Team Finland score remains 1-0

11:04pm M. Koivu takes a tripping penalty sending Team Slovakia to their 2nd power play with 11:30 left to play in the 2nd period

11:06pm M. Gaborik ties the game at 1-1 midway throught the 2nd period

11:08pm Team Finland headed to their 3rd power play of the night, so far they are 1 for 2 with Salo scoring the goal, Finland needs to send message here. 8:50 left in the 2nd

11:13pm Team Slovakia takes Too Many Men on the Ice penalty, but then S. Koivu takes a penalty 30 seconds later, 4 on 4 with 6 minutes left in the 2nd 1-1

11:16pm Team Finland takes another penalty giving Team Slovakia at 5 on 3 for 26 seconds

11:17pm M. Hossa scores for Team Slovakia on the 5 on 3 making it 2-1 Slovakia, Slovakia goes to conventional power play for 1:30

11:21pm Big time for Team Finland as Team Slovakia takes a double minor for high sticking with 2 minutes left in the 2nd period.

11:23pm M. Hossa’s pretty pass to Canuck P. Demitra makes it 3-1 on the short-handed goal

11:26pm End second period 3-1 Team Slovakia

11:42pm Start of the 3rd period still 3-1 Team Slovakia

11:44pm Team Finland crucial power play down 3-1 with 17 minutes left in regulation

11:46pm 5 on 3 coming up to Team Finland, MUST SCORE for Finland

11:49pm Team Finland pulls within 1 on the power play as puck deflects off Niklas Hagman to make it 3-2 Team Slovakia

11:52pm Olli Jokinen ties it up with under 12 minutes to go, great play by Team Finland

11:55pm Marian Hossa takes a tripping penalty with the score tied at 3, Finland back to the power play, 2 of 3 goals have been on the PP, 12 left

11:56pm Did that play look at little familiar Hurricanes fans? The only difference its was Pitkanen to Olli Jokinen not Jussi. 4-3 Team Finland with 11 minutes left

12:00am Salo takes a penalty for Team Finland, Slovakia to the PP trailing 4-3 with just over 9 minutes remaining in regulation.

12:04am Unsuccessful power play for Team Slovakia leaves them trailing 4-3 with 6 minutes left in regulation, such a good game so far

12:12am It should be 4 on 4 after Marian Hossa takes a dive, but its a Team Slovakia PP with 3 minutes remaining

12:14am GREAT SAVE BY KIPRUSOFF, Team Finland remains ahead. Team Slovakia trails by 1 with 1:25 left, EN Team Slovakia

12:18am Filppula seals the Bronze medal for Team Finland with the EN goal with 10.6 seconds remaing.

12:19 Congratulations to Team Finland on winning the Bronze medal, This means all of the Hurricanes participating in the Olympics will receive an Olympic medal

It’s been kind of quite around Raleigh since the Olympics have began, but the Olympics have been awesome so far. All of the Hurricanes have advanced to the gold metal round. Eric Staal has been the most notable scoring 1 goal and 5 assists, while Joni Pitkanen has a goal and and assist followed by Tuomo Ruutu’s goal. The Hurricanes have began practice and will not be with the services of Staal, Ruutu, Pitkanen, and Gleason til at least Sunday. The hope is that the Hurricanes will pick up right where they left off before the break. The big question is after next week who will be a Hurricane. So to all the Hurricane fans enjoy the semifinals and finals, because all hell is going to break lose Monday morning

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The Carolina Hurricanes have their first five game winning streak of the season.  The Hurricanes came out a little sluggish in the first period and ask rookie goalie Justin Peters to keep them in the game.  Then at 16:46 of the 1st Zack Boychuk slid one past Martin Brodeur for his first NHL goal and it only got better from there for the Hurricanes.  In the second period the Hurricanes would draw a 5 on 3 power play which say Ray Whitney score at 4:34 and 5:34 of the 2nd period to make it 3-0 Carolina.  The Hurricanes would head into the third period with a 3-0 lead before Jussi Jokinen took a cross ice pass and lasered it past Brodeur.  With the Hurricanes leading 4-0 the Devils lifted Martin Brodeur in favor of Yan Danis.  The Devils would then go on a mini run seeing a good backhanded roof job by USA olympian Zack Parise and a cross ice pass to Brian Rolston made it 4-2 with just under three minutes left.  However, with the net empty the Jussi Jokinen deposited the puck with 1:29 left.   With the win the Hurricanes have now won five games in a row and have won six in a row at home.

Three Stars: 1st Star: Ray Whitney, 2nd Star: Jussi Jokinen, 3rd Star: Zack Boychuk

Post Game Quotes

Zack Boychuk

Justin Peters

Jussi Jokinen

Ray Whitney

Paul Maurice

One short note. Tonight could have possibly been the Wizzards last game and if so I would like to thank Ray Whitney for all he has done for the Hurricanes, from the Stanley Cup to some not so great season he has been nothing but a good teammate, leader, and scorer. Thank you Ray for everything to us you will always be a Hurricane.

The Carolina Hurricanes last game before the break sees them take on the new look New Jersey Devils and Ilya Kovalchuk.  The Devils are competing for 2nd in the Eastern Conference.   The Devils have won the only two meetings this season in Newark 2-0 and 4-2, both games were stolen by Martin Brodeur.  The Hurricanes are one of the hottest teams in the NHL right now winning eight or their last ten games including four in a row and five in a row at home.  Devils are 2-3 since trading for Kovalchuk and are also looking to end the pre-Olympic break with a win.

The Devils are looking for Kovalchuk to really produce and bring a real scoring threat to a defensive team in the playoffs.  In the Devils last game Kovalchuk finally scored his first goal as a Devil.  “A game breaker is important and Ilya did it today for us,” Brodeur said. “Other players will do it once in a while but that’s why we brought him in. Today he was and that’s going to jumpstart everybody.”  Travis Zajac has goals in consecutive games for New Jersey and has collected five goals and five assists in his last eight. Zach Parise missed a game earlier this week due to an upper-body injury, but has also scored in each of the last two he’s played.  The Devils look to have that good feeling going into the break tonight after only winning three games in the last ten.

The Hurricanes will give Justin Peters another start tonight as the Hurricanes look for their fifth straight and their first game without Matt Cullen.  With the Hurricanes being without Cullen the fans will get their first look at defenseman Alexandre Picard.  Picard has 4 goals and 11 assists with the Ottawa Senators.  When asked about the trade Picard had this to say.  “I was pretty excited,” Picard said. “It has been a rough couple of weeks here in Ottawa for me. Didn’t get to play much. So obviously I was pretty happy to go to a team where they wanted me and I’ll get a chance to play.”  Picard had been a highly coveted player, but has not lived up to the potential so far.  If the Hurricanes are to win tonight the power play has to continue to stay on fire, despite the loss of Cullen.  “It’s a long season, and you can’t count yourself out until you’re mathematically counted out,” veteran goalie Manny Legace said. “We struggled through Christmas, but I really do think it was a jelling period and now the guys are starting to come together and playing like a team every single night. This is the way we can play. This has been great to watch.”The also have to make sure not to let Kovalchuk kill you.  Kovalchuk always seems to be at his best when play the Hurricanes.

News & Notes:  Kovalchuk has 58 points in 47 games against Carolina, by far the most against any team

Justin Peters is making his second NHL start tonight after a 3-1 win last week against the Islanders

Injuries:    NJD  David Clarkson

NJD  Paul Martin

CAR  Chad LaRose

CAR  Erik Cole

CAR  Scott Walker

CAR  Cam Ward

Prediction CAR 3 NJD 2 F/OT