AP photo
ATLANTA -- Eric Staal and Bryan Little played a game-with-in-a-game, and Staal won.
Little got a hat trick first, but Staal's third-period hat trick gave his team the win, 5-4.
Staal scored his first goal on the power play seven minutes into the third with the Canes trailing 3-2. His goal tied it, but not for long.
Little quickly responded with his third goal of the night to put the Atlanta Thrashers back on top.
Cue Staal, whose unassisted goal 10:42 into the period tied the game. And less than two minutes later, Staal got yet another — and it held up for the win.
Little scored two power-play goals in the last 1:46 of the second period to give Atlanta a 3-2 lead.
Little scored the second goal with just 2.5 seconds left in the period on a backhand. His first came on a redirection of a Ron Hainsey shot.
Patrick Eaves' first goal of the season had given the Canes a 2-1 lead. Eaves, playing his 30th game, scored on a backhand feed from Ray Whitney at 5:58 of the second.
It was Whitney's second assist of the game as he extended his point streak to five games.
The Thrashers tied it late in the second with their second power-play goal fo the game. Bryan Little redirected a shot by Ron Hainsey past cam Ward at 18:14.
Chad LaRose's goal with 1:04 left in the first period gave the Canes a 1-1 tie. LaRose picked up his eighth goal of the season and his first in 12 games by knocking a rebound of a Frank Kaberle shot past Johan Hedberg.
The Thrashers, after managing one shot on goal in the first eight minutes, took a 1-0 lead on Todd White's power-play goal at 10:58.
The Thrashers had four shots on the power play, with White scoring on the rebound of Ron Hainsey's blast from the point. The goal came after the Canes' Scott Walker was called for goalie interference at 10:11.
Dennis Seidenberg and Niclas Wallin are scratches, leaving the Canes with five defensemen in the lineup. Seidenberg participated in the pregame skate Friday but was pulled from the lineup because of illness.
The Canes lost Walker late in the first when the forward was hit in the face on another Hainsey shot. He returned for the start of the second period.
A Raleigh native, Chip has worked at the N&O since 1979 and is the Canes beat writer. He can be reached at
Comments
Power Play and Penalty Kill
Sat, 12/27/2008 - 10:34 — abramsdougIt's long time for the coaching staff to show some objectivity about the special teams of the Hurricanes. Paul Maurice continues to speak of the need to replicate good hockey and fix problems that are reoccurring problems. The power play lacks the personnel to be effective on a consistent basis. Whitney/Staal/Samsonov; Whitney/Staal/Ruutu; LaRose/Cullen/Williams; Eaves/Cullen/Walker; even on occasion Whitney/Sutter/Eaves; Staal/Cullen/Ruutu, Whitney/Cullen/Walker or other combination of those players ought to be on the power play. It's useless to have Brind'Amour on the power play simply due to the state of his recuperation from knee surgeries. I can understand the need to play Brind'Amour at even strength when he is at best 75% to 80%; but it seems totally illogical to add to his on ice time. There is a very high correlation between short-hand goals and goal attempts and Brind'Amour being on the power play. He lacks the speed necessary to make up ground and his puck control is lacking at the moment, which leads to turn overs. My preference would be for management to add somebody like Chris Thorburn #27 for the Thrashers. He's 25 years old; 6'3" and 225 pounds. He and Gleason were pounding each other in front of the net last night. That kind of player would create space and grit on the power play. It's almost impossible for a team to make the playoffs with a dismal power play. The lack of an excellent powerplay by the Hurricanes the past two seasons was a critical element in their missing the playoffs. The productivity of the powerplay this season will determine whether or not the Hurricanes are in or out of the playoffs. In short, fix it or golf while the best teams are playing for the Stanley Cup.
We won...
Sat, 12/27/2008 - 00:02 — esteban1949Despite ourselves...and as the church lady would say.." Isn't that precious !!" But all kidding aside, was glad that we got the win, as it looked like at the end of the 2nd, the canes were all out of steam. Gee i wonder if by some chance that this time Saturday night, Samsonov or Sutter might have a goal or 2 and dare i say it...a win against dastardly Boston . But heck, we can dream can't we? I mean sure we won tonight, but so did the Caps and i think Tampa bay did 2...so how much ground did we actually gain in the standings ?
Anybody care to hazard a guess ?
Go Canes, Again Please, This time with "feeling" !!!
Ground gained.....
Sat, 12/27/2008 - 00:36 — piratepike09Although both Tampa and Washington won tonight, they beat Florida (who was tied with us in points going into tonight, with 2 games in hand) and Buffalo (who was 1 point ahead of us with 1 game in hand going into tonight) respectively, so really, it was better that those 2 teams won to keep FLA and BUF behind us.
Glass was more than half full tonite
Fri, 12/26/2008 - 23:45 — AN0NYM0USYes, we gave up a hat trick, yes, we allowed 3 power play goals, yes, we barely beat a team we should (in theory) totally dominate....But,
Staal was a BEAST, Cam came up big when he had to, Rosie got us going, Eaves got on the board (finally), we dug deep to come back, and most importantly, we got 2 points.
If you saw the game on TV you got your money's worth!
Now back to the RBC and lets take care of business against the B's......
Go Canes!
Cam was......
Sat, 12/27/2008 - 00:38 — piratepike09Cam was INSANE tonight. He could have had a few of those goals, but the saves he made there in the 2nd more than made up for the 4 he did give up, but of course, only because we won. I dont know if I have ever seen Cam make that many saves in a string like that of point blank, open, absolute bombs by so many players like he did there in the 2nd. He was solid in the 3rd as well.
a new strategy...
Fri, 12/26/2008 - 22:14 — rmmeliI can only assume that the coaching staff want to make every team the Canes play look as good as possible. Worked so far on this road trip and especially tonight.
our special teams are
Fri, 12/26/2008 - 22:08 — bppackour special teams are putrid. Atlanta's pitiful power play is 3 for 3 so far, while we have been outshot on ours.
Sides
Fri, 12/26/2008 - 20:45 — larikatThey said he had the flu.