ShareThisSo the tape-to-tape pass wasn't extinct after all. It just seemed that way after the Carolina Hurricanes spent most of their time passing the puck to the Boston Bruins in the first game of this NHL playoff series.
In the second game, the Hurricanes passed the puck to each other, and a funny thing happened. Joe Corvo scored his first goal of the playoffs. Matt Cullen scored his first goal as well, short-handed no less. And Eric Staal continued to give Zdeno Chara everything he could handle.
When the Hurricanes didn't beat themselves Sunday night, the Bruins couldn't beat them, either. And perhaps, with the 3-0 win, the Hurricanes' Hub of Hockey Hex can be put aside for good.
With their first win over Boston in six tries this season, the Canes not only reversed the errors of Game 1, they evened the series.
"We needed to rebound strong," said Cam Ward, who stopped 36 shots for his fourth career playoff shutout. "We haven't had much luck against these guys going back to the regular season, and this is a big confidence booster."
Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice scrambled the lines in a drastic move that hinted at either courage or desperation, depending on one's perspective, but Carolina's victory had less to do with changes to the lineup and more to do with changes in attitude.
The Canes wanted to deny the Bruins odd-man rushes, and they did a much better job of that.
They didn't want to turn the puck over, and they did a better job of that.
They wanted to get more shots from the blue line, and Corvo started the scoring from there early in the second period.
No one mentioned scoring short-handed, but since the Canes can't seem to buy a power play that may be the only way they'll score on special teams.
"We definitely didn't play into their hands," Staal said. "We still had a few turnovers, but that happens. That's the game of hockey. There are always mistakes. But we didn't continually do it. We did the simple things, we fought the puck out of our end and into theirs, and that's what you have to do."
They didn't talk much about getting more hits on the Bruins, but they did. Ryan Bayda had the biggest, clobbering Dennis Wideman behind the net while Wideman was tangled with Patrick Eaves.
And when the Bruins had chances -- and they're going to get chances -- Ward was solid, perfect on the night despite one dangerous stumble behind the net. Perhaps most important, when the Bruins took the first 10 shots of the third period, Ward stopped all 10.
These are the kinds of little things that win games. The Canes didn't do them in Game 1. Never mind the little things, the Canes didn't do the big things in Game 1. And if they had continued to do that Sunday, this wouldn't have been much of a series.
It is now, and whether you believe in the adage that a playoff series doesn't start until the road team wins a game or not, the Canes may have shaken the Bruins' previously unshakable confidence while rebuilding some of their own.
"We played a more patient game," Corvo said. "It seemed like in the last game we wanted to score two goals in one shift. We were pressing, and guys were getting anxious. We just kind of relaxed tonight."
And, from the other locker room:
"I thought we got carried away a little bit, and we didn't play our game," Boston center Patrice Bergeron said. "We didn't stick to the system, we forced too many plays, we didn't keep it simple, and it cost us some turnovers there."
Sound familiar?
Getting Corvo and Cullen, who combined for 32 regular-season goals, on the score sheet was important, as was knocking the high-flying Bruins down a peg, but none of that mattered as much as rediscovering the game that got them this far in the first place.
(Contact Luke DeCock at luke.decock@newsobserver.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
columnMust credit The News and Observer of Raleigh, N.C.
