Almost midway through the 3rd period, the game felt like a microcosm of the problems with the 2013-14 season. The power play was 0-for. The team was trying to solve a hot goalie by playing the "let me just try even harder to beat him" (versus traffic, chaos around the crease and a quest for an ugly goal). And the team was on the verge of losing another game that it should win, as we have already seen a few too many times this season.
But that horrible story line was put on hold when Alexander Semin ironically scored an ugly, traffic-induced power play goal and then put to bed when Jiri Tlusty added the game-winner soon thereafter. Semin's goal happened when Riley Nash went to the net when the puck was about to arrive. Sure enough what seemed to be a mishit wide by Semin went off a defender's skate and right into the net. With the late heroics, the Canes got the win that they both deserved and needed. And the story line quickly flipped to "finding a way to win."
The Canes also received a decent amount of help Thursday night. The Rangers lost to the Wild, and the Blue Jackets picked up only a single point in a shootout loss to the Sharks. On the night, the Canes climbed to within 7 points of both the Blue Jackets (no games in hand) and the Rangers (1 game in hand) who are 2nd and 3rd in the division and to within 6 points of the idle Flyers (minus 1 game in hand).
A few quick notes on the game:
--Dominant performance, but needs more ugly. When you lack the ability to generate offense on the power play where you can sometimes get 'no chance for the goalie' opportunities and also the ability/style of play/desire to collect ugly goals when needed by creating chaos around the crease, you are going to run into more than your fair share of hot goalies over the course of a season. The guys in net are pretty good and almost all are capable of having those nights where if they get in a rhythm and see the shot cleanly, they are going to stop it. And that is where Neuvirth lived all night until a rare Canes ugly goal by Semin courtesy of Nash's traffic turned the tide. Especially minus a reliable power play, the Canes need to find more of these ugly goals.
--Tlusty/JStaal/Semin. They were the best line on the ice again. Even when they are not scoring, they are defensively sound and generally playing much more with the puck than without (partly due to JStaal's 21 of 25 in the faceoff circle. When you play with the puck, it eventually results in chances and goals. Alexander Semin earned the 1st star with the critical goal and then the beautiful passing play on Tlusty's goal.
--Jeff Skinner. If it were not a night when the goalie was having an "if I see it, I stop it" night, he could have had 2-3 goals. He looked to shoot all night and registered some pretty good chances that could have found the net.
--Defensive core. The 5-man defensive core that again saw limited ice time for Komisarek (8:04 Thu night) was solid and gave the undermanned Sabres very little. The Hainsey/Bellemore has found another stretch of pretty solid defensive hockey right when the team needed it, and Ryan Murphy continues to at least hold his own stepping into the top 4 which is impressive.
--Cam Ward. He obviously had the lighter workload of the 2 netminders, but he got the job done and answered when called. He has a history of playing his best regular season hockey in March. Is it possible, that it is arriving right on its usual schedule despite the challenging road getting to this point?
Next up is a big challenge on the road against a Bruins team that has won 7 straight. It is exactly the kind of win that the team needs to get points that the schedule did not intend to give to make up for some of the should-have-won points given up earlier in the season.
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