The Carolina Hurricanes and the Buffalo Sabres faced uncertainty entering Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals Friday night.
After losing two of the first three games of the series, the Hurricanes -- who earlier in the day learned that their most inspirational player, Erik Cole, would not return this season -- also had a budding goaltender controversy. The Sabres were down to three of the top six defensemen they had when the playoffs began.
The goalie switch seemed to inspire the Hurricanes, who coasted to a 4-0 victory. Martin Gerber made 22 saves for his first career playoff shutout.
The loss of another defenseman obviously did not help the Sabres, and Carolina reclaimed the home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven series, which is tied at 2-2.
Game 5 is Sunday in Raleigh, North Carolina.
"As players, we don't really care who's in the net -- as long as he stops the puck," Carolina left wing Cory Stillman said.
Gerber, who was the No. 1 goalie most of the season, set a franchise record with 38 victories. He was making his first start since the rookie Cam Ward replaced him after Game 2 of Carolina's first-round series with Montreal.
"It's not like we brought in a guy from the minor leagues or a backup per se," coach Peter Laviolette said of his decision to start Gerber.
Gerber was fighting a stomach ailment when the playoffs began and lost about 10 pounds. "I don't want to use it as an excuse," he said, adding: "It's never fun to be watching, but Cam was playing great. He was unbelievably hot."
Buffalo was playing without Henrik Tallinder, who has been its best defenseman during the playoffs. Tallinder is out for the rest of the season after breaking his left wrist late in Game 3. Teppo Numminen (groin) and Dmitri Kalinin (broken ankle) were also in street clothes.
That forced the Sabres to use Doug Janik and Jeff Jillson, defensemen who had spent most of the season in the minor leagues. Through two periods, Jillson was on the ice for two goals and Janik for one as the Hurricanes took a 3-0 lead.
"I actually thought our defense played reasonably well for us," Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said. "I didn't think defense was the issue."
Mark Recchi opened the scoring 6 minutes 54 seconds into the first period on a double deflection of a shot by Frantisek Kaberle. Eric Staal gave Carolina a 2-0 lead on the power play at 9:53, on only its fourth shot.
Staal's goal, his seventh of the playoffs, extended his franchise-record streak of recording at least a point to 14 games, the longest in the postseason since Pavel Bure's 16-game streak for Vancouver in 1994.
Staal, who leads the NHL with 19 points this postseason, is four games shy of Bryan Trottier's single-season playoff record of 18 games with the 1981 Islanders.
Andrew Ladd scored in the second period, and Bret Hedican added a goal in the third.
If the Hurricanes reach the Stanley Cup finals, they will do so without Cole, who sustained a broken neck March 4. Cole practiced with the team earlier this week and had a C.T. scan Thursday.
Four-time NBA all-star DeMarcus Cousins arrived in Taiwan with his family early yesterday to finish his renewed contract with the Taiwan Beer Leopards in the T1 League. Cousins initially played a four-game contract with the Leopards in January. On March 18, the Taoyuan-based team announced that Cousins had renewed his contract. “Hi what’s up Leopard fans, I’m back. I’m excited to be back and can’t wait to join the team,” Cousins said in a video posted on the Leopard’s Facebook page. “Most of all, can’t wait to see you guys, the fans, next weekend. So make sure you come out and support the Beer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was