Watch CBS News

Hurricanes Beat Bruins 2-1 In Shootout

BOSTON – The frustrated TD Garden crowd started a chant of "We Want Playoffs" early in the third period of Tuesday night's game.

Their Bruins, threatening to miss the playoffs for the second straight season, were trailing Carolina 1-0 in a game important only to Boston.

The chant produced almost instant results, with Loui Eriksson tying the game, but the Hurricanes still managed to pull out a 2-1 victory in a shootout.

Rookie defenseman Noah Hanifin, a local product who played at Boston College, beat Tuukka Rask with the only goal of a five-round shootout to give the Hurricanes the win, raising their record over the last 16 games to 7-3-6.

With the point, the Bruins pulled into a tie with the idle Detroit Red Wings for third place in the Atlantic Division, but the Red Wings, who visit Boston on Thursday night, have a game in hand. The Bruins also pulled even with the idle Philadelphia Flyers in the chase for the second wild card, but the Flyers, who host Detroit on Wednesday, have two games in hand on Boston, which hosts the Ottawa Senators in Saturday's regular season finale.

Dave Goucher & Bob Beers On Bruins' Playoff Fate:

Veteran goaltender Cam Ward, just 14-35 with a .636 save percentage all-time in shootouts, was a perfect 5-for-5 in the shootout and made 35 saves in the 65 minutes of regulation and overtime.

Defenseman Jaccob Slavin scored his first goal since Dec. 8 to give the 'Canes a 1-0 lead late in the first period.

Rask, falling to 20-25 lifetime in shootouts, made 27 saves in the game.

Carolina, playing its ninth overtime period in its last 15 games, was playing its first game since being eliminated from the playoffs.

Bruins defenseman and captain Zdeno Chara saved the regulation tie with 1:40 remaining. Rask made a save on Brett Pesce but the puck trickled through and was lying near the goal line when Chara got to it ahead of Carolina's Elias Lindholm and cleared the puck out of danger.

Rask had made a huge save on Jeff Skinner with 11:39 left in the third.

Rask, who came in with an .836 save percentage over his last three outings, made some excellent saves to keep the game scoreless but should have had the shot that went in – Slavin flipping a puck from the left point that found its way in with 1:06 left in the first period.

The Bruins came out better in the second but still couldn't get the puck past Ward, who came in just 13-15-3 against Boston in his career. Carolina re-captured its territorial edge in the second half of the period.

Adam Jones' Plus/Minus From Loss:

Eriksson, guilty of four penalties for eight minutes on the year, took two in the second period, his second coming with 28.9 seconds left in the period, leaving Carolina on the power play heading into the third – a period the Bruins desperately needed to win.

The power play just ended when Eriksson came out of the penalty box when a mix-up at the Carolina bench on a line change, with Hanifin going off. That allowed Eriksson to pick up a loose puck and walk in alone on Ward. He faked the goaltender to the ice and tucked the puck in for his 29th of the season, matching the second-highest goal total of his career (he had 36 in 2008-09).

NOTES: Carolina's Bill Peters was named to coach the Canadian team at the IIHF World Championship from May 6 to May 22 in Russia. "Obviously, it's always exciting any time you get to represent your country," he said Tuesday. "It's a real good experience every time I've done it. I've done it twice. Last year, it was a fantastic group of people ... with a great group of management people." ... The Bruins got D Kevan Miller back after he missed a game with a lower body injury. D Dennis Seidenberg (lower body) practiced Monday but missed his third straight game. ... Boston recalled D Colin Miller and sent RW Seth Griffith back to Providence. ... The TD Garden crowd was invited to stay after the game "to watch and participate" in the shooting of the movie "Stronger, the story of Jeff Bauman. Injured in the Boston Marathon bombing, Bauman became a symbol of the city's strength. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Bauman. ... Carolina RW Elias Lindholm has been shifted to center for the final three games of the season.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.