BOSTON — The Boston Bruins' Patrice Bergeron said he knew what was coming from the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2.
"We were expecting them to be more aggressive," the forward said. "We were expecting them to come out and play harder. They're the team that never gives up."
The Canes didn't against New Jersey in the first round, bouncing back from a 4-1 loss in Game 1 to win Game 2 and going on to win the series in seven games. Now, the Hurricanes have bounced back from a 4-1 loss to the Bruins in the opener for a 3-0 victory Sunday to even the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
"We never expected it was going to be a quick series," Bergeron said.
Goals by the Canes' Joe Corvo and Matt Cullen in the second period — Cullen with a shorthanded score — gave Carolina a 2-0 lead. Then, in the final seconds of the period, Chad LaRose got off a shot that had the puck hit the crossbar, ricochet straight down toward the goal line and bounce around.
The Canes thought it was a goal, even though the referee immediately waved it off. After a seven-minute review, the no-goal call stood.
"I guess that was a bit of a break for us," Bruins defenseman Andrew Ference said. "But at that point of the game we're still down 2-0, so it's not like we were riding a big wave of momentum."
And the call didn't adversely affect the Canes.
"Everyone said we scored, but you've just got to move on from there," LaRose said. "It was no goal, that's what the call was, and you've got to move forward.
"It took a while but we didn't need it. We moved on."
With Cam Ward making 35 saves — "He's our rock," Eric Staal said — in his second shutout of the playoffs, the Canes moved the series back to Raleigh with a 1-1 split.
"We were on the attack, we were skating, we were playing our game," Staal said. "We knew we needed to be better than we were in Game 1, and we fought hard."
A Raleigh native, Chip has worked at the N&O since 1979 and is the Canes beat writer. He can be reached at 
Comments
Skate and win
Tue, 05/05/2009 - 00:36 — bbruin91Bruins won game 1 because Canes stood and did not skate.
Nice job Maurice rebounding with line changes (and rest?).
Chalk win up to coaching. Bruins better post people on both sides of goal to get Ward out of position. More impressive was the 1-0 loss to Brodeur. But 2 shutouts? Noticed.
That was a goal by Larose , but until technology gets better........HD was never better appreciated!! Fights not needed for enjoyment, but Bruins need to get nastier. Get Staal 1 on 1 and don't let him take cheap shots on 3rd person after being labeled. Mr. Hnidy?
Nice job getting Chara to sin bin. That'll work.
Bruins will take 1 on the road, never fear, never out of it also.
42 more hours??
Good Enough
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 10:54 — canesmojoWhat's really encouraging about the win in Game 2 is the Canes still didn't bring their best game, and walked off with a 3-0 win anyway. Carolina was dramatically better in Game 2, and they played well -- well enough to win. But there were still some decisions with the puck -- especially in the defensive zone -- that might be considered "questionable". At the end of the day it didn't matter. Cam Ward was spectacular when he needed to be, he just shouldn't have needed to be as often as he did.
It wasn't perfect, and at times it was far from pretty, but if I could place my order now I'd order up three more games just like it.
Good post. Said it all.
Mon, 05/04/2009 - 14:51 — hockeyhickCan you imagine what a game it would be if both teams played their best game? Wow!