Solid

It's funny what a little bit of effort and hard work will do for you. The Canes played a solid game tonight and pulled off a 3-1 win over the Kitties from Florida. All three goals were effort goals: A Stillman putback of a loose puck, Walker fighting for the puck under Belfour, and the Brindy deflection short handed. Those are the kind of hard working goals this team needs to consistently get in order to break out of this goal-scoring slump.

The game would have been a shutout if not for the perfect example of the famed Olé Defense as demonstrated by Joe Vasicek. Nice one.

Missing weekend

I was out of town this weekend and unable to see the past two games except for part of the shootout this afternoon. Three out of four points isn't so bad, except for the part about giving the Rangers two. Time is running out and the team needs to make a move.

White Flash 2, Ice Hawks 5

Game Details

Scoring	1	2	3	Total
White Flash	0	0	2	2
Ice Hawks	1	1	3	5

Shots on goal

White Flash	15
Ice Hawks	18

Scoring Summary
Period 1
Ice Hawks - Chris Caran (Greg Frey) , 19:26

Period 2
Ice Hawks - Joe Rizza (power play) (unassisted), 15:01

Period 3
Ice Hawks - Dan Smyrski (Chris Caran) , 3:49
White Flash - Chris Janak (powerplay) (Ron King, Dwight Edmonson) , 9:07
Ice Hawks - Chris Caran (Kevin Kleber, Nathan Shadle) , 10:55
Ice Hawks - Matt Casulli (Greg Frey) , 13:21
White Flash - Chip Little (unassisted) , 14:45

Penalties
Period 1
Ice Hawks - Greg Frey - (High Sticking Minor), 2 min , 6:52
White Flash - Dwight Edmonson - (Interference Minor), 2 min , 13:28

Period 2
Ice Hawks - Chris Flood - (Interference Minor), 2 min , 4:39
White Flash - Mike McDonough - (Interference Minor), 2 min , 14:06

Period 3
Ice Hawks - Nicole Leech - (Tripping Minor), 2 min , 8:32

Footnote

Well, Cam Ward got to be a historical footnote tonight, but at least he got the win. Sidney Crosby picked up his 200th career point, surpassing Wayne Gretzky as the youngest player to reach that milestone in NHL history. It's always impressive to surpass the Great One in anything. The span is even more impressive. Gretzky was almost 20 when he got 200, whereas Sid the Kid still has some five to six months to go.

The game itself started a breakneck speed, both teams rushing up and down the ice at very high speed. The pace was startling and could not be maintained. The Penguins were the better team in the first period, but the Canes came back and gained some momentum in the second, even though the Pens tied it up shortly after they gave up the lead. Scott Walker was in the right place at the right time for both of his goals, keeping the Canes in the fight for the playoffs still.

The downward spiral

If your team loses and you're not there to see it, did it really happen? I saw the first 10 minutes or so of the game last night before I left for my own hockey game (we won 9-1 and I had 3 assists). I caught the final score on the radio on my way home. I understand that Emery was pretty outstanding, but this just sounds like another disappointing effort by the Canes.

I've not given up on them to make the playoffs, but they need to play better down the stretch. They're giving up a lot of games in hand and they traditionally don't play well on a lot of rest for some reason. Someone on the team needs to step up and I think it has to be Rod Brind'Amour.