Manny Legace got the start in goal for the Hurricanes and looked sharp early, controlling his rebounds fairly well.  But a little over twelve minutes in, Jannik Hansen was able to put the Canucks up 1-0.  There was a weird moment right after the goal was scored, where Legace threw a frustrated look Joni Pitkanen’s way.  It was a shot that Legace probably should’ve stopped, but Pitkanen may have inadvertently tipped it as well.  It seems to just have been a heat of the moment reaction but was still interesting.  Then a mere twenty seconds later Ray Whitney tied the game up 1-1, with assists from Eric Staal and Aaron Ward. 

Near the end of the first period Roberto Luongo, who had been given the night off by Vancouver, almost got hit by a puck while sitting on the bench.  It goes to show, the injury bug is contagious in Carolina, not just for their own team – watch out! 

The second period was big for the Hurricanes.  You could feel the momentum shifting almost right away with Carolina spending a lot of time in the Canucks’s zone.  Erik Cole scored his first goal of the night about four minutes in, with assists coming from Whitney and Tim Gleason.  Both teams were guilty of sloppy passing that led to turnovers and a lot of the game’s scoring opportunities came on these.  Sergei Samsonov was able to capitalize on one when the puck bounced off of Hansen’s skate right to him in front of Vancouver’s net to put the Hurricanes up 3-1.  Then with just over a minute remaining in the period, Carolina scored in a very strange fashion.  There were a number of players from both teams in front of the Canucks goal fighting for the puck, but there seemed to be an instant where no one actually knew where it was and then the puck was behind Andrew Raycroft and in the net.  The goal was given to Cole, with Whitney and Staal getting assists as well. 

Now take a deep breath because, as most Hurricanes fans know, no lead is safe going into the third period.  That has been especially apparent over the last few games.  Vancouver came out looking like a different team from the one that took the ice in the second.  They were very pesky; with guys like Ryan Kesler and Alexandre Burrows making a lot of nice plays.  There was a scary moment for Carolina when Ryan Johnson fell into the net unintentionally taking Legace down with him.  It looked like Legace’s right leg bent awkwardly underneath him, but he was able to get back up a minute later and continue playing.  After a hard fought first half of the period Vancouver’s pressure continued to mount, with them spending significant time in the Carolina zone.  A few different Hurricanes players had chance to clear the puck out but weren’t able to execute, which made it seem like a Canucks goal was almost inevitable.  Sure enough, Steve Bernier was able to put one in the net to make it 4-2.  At that point most fans had to be thinking, “Oh no here we go again.”  Over the next few minutes, Vancouver continued to dominate play, but Carolina had a great chance when Erik Cole hit the post with a shot, almost getting the hat trick.  With just over five minutes left in the game, Alexandre Burrows was somehow able to bat the puck out of mid-air past Legace to put the Canucks within one goal.  Manny Legace made some great saves and the Hurricanes were able to kill off a phantom high sticking penalty in the final minutes of the game.  Erik Cole scored an empty netter to complete his hat trick with 14 seconds remaining to put Carolina on top 5-3.

The team was able to finish off Saturday’s game even after giving up goals to let Vancouver back into it late; which is something that hadn’t happened in the games against Atlanta and Buffalo.  Also Scott Walker played his first game back from an upper body injury.  Some more good news is that Cam Ward is expected to play Wednesday in New Jersey, returning from the leg laceration he suffered on November 7^th in Columbus.

The Hurricanes start a four game road trip tonight in Pittsburgh.  They are still looking for their first road win this season and hopefully can carry Saturday’s momentum into the coming week.

The big story for Canes fans tonight is the return of Eric Staal, who is coming off an upper body injury that cost him ten games.  Adding Staal back into the lineup gives Carolina more experience, more scoring opportunities, and another big body on the ice.  It’s always fascinating to see a player return from an extended injury absence.  A return can generally go one of two ways; it will either be fairly seamless and the team sees a benefit right away or it can mess with the chemistry of the team and take a little while to re-adjust.  I suspect Staal’s return will be of the more seamless variety and hope it can give the team the spark it needs to begin playing more consistently.

Tuomo Ruutu is reportedly questionable for tonight’s game.  He left Monday night’s loss to the Stars with a lower body injury.  Hopefully he’s in the lineup tonight and if not, that he won’t be gone long.  He’s one of the hottest players on the team lately with six points in his last five games.  For Anaheim, Joffrey Lupul is questionable as well, with back spasms. 

Odds and Ends: The Hurricanes have been playing hard hitting hockey over the last few games, but are spending too much time in the penalty box, especially last game.  Also, Manny Legace is playing well but the offense needs to help him out by putting some points on the board.  Look for another solid performance from Joni Pitkanen tonight; as he has been amongst the team leaders in ice time in his first two games back from injury.

By the end of the first period, the outlook was bleak at best with the Hurricanes down 3-0.  Things started to turn around though in the second, Carolina began to mount a rally scoring two goals less than a minute apart.  Stephane Yell netted his first goal with the team and Matt Cullen quickly followed it up giving fans a spark of hope going into the third period.

Unfortunately that was somewhat short lived; when Alexei Ponikarovsky’s power play goal put the Leafs up 4-2.  At that point, Canes fans’ heads collectively dropped into their hands.  Enter Tim Gleason, who became one of the night’s many heroes.  Gleason had two huge goals in the third period; his second of the night coming on a power play to even it up at four goals a piece.

With more than seven minutes gone by and no other goals scored, this game seemed destined to need extra time.  Ian White had other plans in mind, though; he scored Toronto’s fifth goal to give them the lead with barely 30 seconds remaining in regulation.  Carolina pulled their goalie, Manny Legace, in the hopes that a man advantage could take this game to OT.  Finally, Erik Cole found the net to again tie the game, five all, with mere seconds left.  To overtime we go!

Last night was the fourth game in a row that a Hurricanes game has needed extra time to decide a winner.  After a scoreless OT, it was time for a shoot out.  Tuomo Ruutu and Jussi Jokinen both scored for Carolina; while Phil Kessel and Lee Stempniak were both denied by Legace.  So the Canes came out on top 6-5 in their third straight game decided by a shoot out.

Despite last night’s slow start; there is a lot of good I think we can take from the game.  The Hurricanes finally showed us they can come from being behind early to win a game.  I like seeing the team finish a game strong; hopefully that can carry over into Saturday night when Carolina faces the Tampa Bay Lightning at home.

Also, this afternoon Bryan Rodney was reassigned to the Albany River Rats (AHL) to make room for Joni Pitkanen’s potential return on Saturday night.