Jackets End The Night Feeling Blue

-Columbus, OH

It didn't take long for the Carolina Hurricanes to continue their winning ways into their first round playoff series. They won their first game in the best of 7 series by a score of 5-3 to take a 1-0 series lead. 

The big hero of Game 1? Quiet trade deadline pickup Matt Cullen who contributed 2 goals and an assist, with one of them being the game winner. "He proved tonight why he's valuable to a team with his experience in this league" said coach Willie Desjardins following the game, "I thought he was great on the PK (killing all 3 opportunities) and at 5v5". Carey Price also had a good start to his series stopping 29 of 32 shots. "I thought Price played well tonight, I didn't think we helped in a lot in the second period having given up 19 shots in that period alone. If there is one area of our game that we need to improve, it's our PP which was 1 for 8" continued Desjardins, "First period we played our game defensively only having given up 2 shots and then the 3rd we returned to the way we wanted to play". 

The Hurricanes are no doubt thrilled to have won at least 1 of their first 2 games being on the road. They will play in Carolina Sunday for Game 3 and then Tuesday for Game 4. They keep up this effort and they will be a threat during their run. GM Rose didn't have much to add other than a quick thanks to Detroit GM Austin Evans for having given his Hurricanes the services of Matt Cullen. Never a dull moment in Carolina!