Flyers at Hurricanes
The Carolina Hurricanes made the lengthy wait for their home opener worthwhile and will try to chalk up back-to-back victories when they host the Philadelphia Flyers on Sunday afternoon. After beginning the season with a six-game road trip, the Hurricanes rode a pair of goals from Jeff Skinner to a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers in Friday's season debut at home.
Carolina needed a confidence-boosting win after opening the season with two overtime losses in which it blew a pair of leads -- and beating New York for only the third time in 17 meetings certainly qualified. “We have so many new players and they were excited to go out on the ice at home,” Hurricanes netminder Cam Ward told reporters. “Clearly the atmosphere was great. I’m just happy to reward the fans with a win.” Philadelphia will be playing its sixth game in nine days and is coming off a pair of wobbly home losses, dropping each by 5-4 scores. "We've got to get our (stuff) together and start winning games," captain Claude Giroux said after the Flyers squandered an early two-goal lead in Saturday's setback against Pittsburgh.
TV: 5 p.m. ET, TCN (Philadelphia), FSN Carolina
ABOUT THE FLYERS (3-5-1): Goaltender Steve Mason has a superb track record against Carolina with an 8-3-1 record and 2.01 goals-against average, but he is coming off a pair of rocky performances. After surrendering five goals to Arizona on Thursday, Mason was pierced for three goals in a 55-second span and was yanked against the Penguins. Giroux appeared to suffer a serious ankle injury early in Saturday's loss, twice heading to the locker room, but he returned to score a power-play goal.
ABOUT THE HURRICANES (2-3-2): Wearing an "A" on his jersey for the first time, Skinner responded with an A-plus performance, collecting what appeared to be a hat trick before a scoring change awarded the final goal to Bryan Bickell. Skinner had missed the previous game with an injury but rattled in a pair of goals to tie for the team lead with nine points. “It’s a home opener, he’s a proud kid, he’s a good hockey player,” coach Bill Peters told reporters. “First chance to wear the A. He was huge.”
OVERTIME
1. Hurricanes C Victor Rask is the first Carolina player with a season-opening seven-point streak since Keith Primeau in 1998-99.
2. Giroux's first goal of the season extended his point streak to eight games.
3. Hurricanes G Cam Ward was 1-0-1 with four goals allowed in two starts versus Philadelphia last season.