RALEIGH, N.C. — Anthony Stewart and Jiri Tlusty scored third-period goals to help the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 3-2 tonight.
Joni Pitkanen scored on the power play and Cam Ward made 26 saves for the Hurricanes. They never trailed, claimed their first win and avoided matching their worst start since the lockout.
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Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand scored and Tim Thomas stopped 31 shots for the Bruins, who have lost two straight and three of four.
The reigning Stanley Cup champions’ power-play unit remained punchless. Boston came up empty on five chances with the man advantage to drop to 1 for 18 for the season.
The Bruins – who were held scoreless through two periods and were in danger of being shut out in consecutive games for the first time since 2009 – twice cut Carolina’s lead to one goal in the third.
First, Seguin – who replaced the injured David Krejci at center on Boston’s No. 1 line – took a nice touch pass from Nathan Horton, whipped a shot past Ward with 15:53 left.
Tlusty followed with a goal that put Carolina up 3-1 with 6:28 left, before Marchand took a feed from Patrice Bergeron in the circle and one-timed it past Ward with 3:25 remaining.
Ward was strong after that, turning aside a blast by Milan Lucic in the final minute to preserve the victory and help the Hurricanes avoid equaling their 0-3-1 start in 2006.
Pitkanen put the Hurricanes up 42 seconds into the second and with 18 seconds left on a hooking minor to Chris Kelly. Pitkanen yo-yoed the puck in the left circle for several seconds – long enough that some fans were screaming for him to shoot it – before he whipped a shot that got past Thomas. His first goal of the season was just Carolina’s third on the power play this season.
Stewart made it 2-0 with 16:18 left, when his shot through traffic and past an obstructed Thomas.
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