The Carolina Hurricanes got two goals from veteran forward Ray Whitney and played a strong defensive game to defeat the Buffalo Sabres 4-3 and even their best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals series at 1-1.
The Canes dominated play in the first two periods, outshooting the Sabres 28-10 and limiting Buffalo to a mere handful of good scoring chances. Only four of the Sabres 10 shots were taken by forwards in the first two periods, showing how the Hurricanes kept Buffalo on the perimeter and away from their net.
Frantisek Kaberle got the scoring started with a power play goal midway through the first period. Sabres goalie Ryan Miller was screened on the play by Rod Brind'Amour and Kaberle let the puck go from just outside the left circle.
Thomas Vanek evened the game at 1-1 with less than a minute left in the opening period as Buffalo's power play connected for the first of three goals on the game.
The second period belonged to Carolina and to Ray Whitney. The first goal came while the Canes had the man advantage. Whitney redirected s hot by Eric Staal that beat Miller and gave Carolina a lead they never relinquished.
Whitney's second goal came in a 4-on-4 skating situation. The veteran took a pass from Matt Cullen and one-timed the puck into the net from between the circles to make it 3-1 Carolina.
Whitney gave Cullen credit for the making the goal possible. 'I was thinking, 'Pick your head up and slide it,'' Whitney said after the game. 'It just kind of opened up. Once Matt was done stick-handling, he slid it over. It was a good play.'
The play of the game came early in the third period when veteran Carolina defenseman Glen Wesley leaped over goalie Cam Ward and saved a puck that was trickling towards the net off the stick of Jay McKee. The replay booth confirmed that the puck never went into the net.
'I saw Cam stop it and it literally trickled through him,' Wesley said. 'Fortunately, I was on the side and not in front of him, and I was just able to get my stick on it, I guess in the nick of time.'
After Justin Williams scored in the third period to make it 4-1, Buffalo began a late rally. Chris Drury scored a power play goal at the 11:39 mark of the final period before Derek Roy added another tally with just three seconds left to make it 4-3. The Sabres ran out of time and the series was tied.
Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward had to make only 16 saves to earn the win. He was pleased with his team's performance in front of him. 'We were skating and it was just fun to watch,' Ward said. 'You see the guys playing that hard in front of you, you want to do the same for them.'
Game 3 will be Wednesday night in Buffalo. Buffalo's Daniel Briere knows his team has to play better if they expect to win. 'We have to want it more if we want to move past these guys,' Briere said. 'They're a good hockey team, but we want to play harder.'
