The Carolina Hurricanes topped the San Jose Sharks 1-0 at PNC Arena Tuesday night.
Carolina forward Joakim Nordstrom scored the game’s only goal at 10:48 of the third period and netminder Cam Ward stopped all 22 shots he faced to defeat the Sharks (9-7-0) as the Hurricanes (5-6-4) won their first back-to-back games of the season.
After an evenly played opening period, Carolina dominated in the second, bringing the play to the Sharks and spending the majority of the 20 minutes in the offensive zone. San Jose failed to register a shot on goal until more than 12 minutes into the frame, and the Canes produced several scoring chances en route to outshooting the Sharks 10-2.
“We managed the puck really well and controlled the second period,” Ward said. “I was real impressed with the guys playing in front of me.”
Despite Carolina obviously outplaying San Jose in the second, the two teams entered the second intermission scoreless.
Nordstrom followed up his own initial shot and put the rebound past San Jose goaltender Aaron Dell to score the lone goal and game winner. The Canes’ fourth line of Nordstrom, Jay McClement and Viktor Stalberg won the puck in the defensive zone and quickly headed up the ice where they scored on the rush.
“It was a really good play,” Nordstrom said. “JMac drove the net there, opened it up for me coming in as the late guy there. Really nice play by Stalberg.”
The Canes, led by Ward in net, held off a final push by the Sharks with Dell pulled for an extra attacker. Ward picked up the 24th shutout of his career and his first since Oct. 21, 2015. In the past, Ward has been criticized for not making big, timely saves when the team needs it, but against San Jose, he did just that, helping the Canes pull out a victory.
“I felt composed, where I wasn’t moving too much,” Ward said. “Sometimes, you move too much, you open up holes. Today, I felt very compact in my position and trusted my position.”
The win marks the first time this season the Canes have won two-straight games and moves the team out of last place in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s starting to come together,” Carolina head coach Bill Peters said. “I like the way we’re playing. I thought we built off our last game against Washington and now we’ve got to continue to do that moving forward.”
