CBC-Sports

Jokinen: The OT man

May 7, 2009 12:25 AM | Posted by   CBC Sports Staff  

For the second time this post-season, Jussi Jokinen was the hero for the Hurricanes.

Jokinen, who had scored on Martin Brodeur with 0.2 seconds left in regulation to win Game 4 in the first round series versus New Jersey, rapped an OT puck past Boston goalie Tim Thomas to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 win and a 2-1 series lead over the Bruins on Wednesday.

On the play, Carolina's Sergei Samsonov picked off a Zdeno Chara clearing attempt and went the other way. Thomas got a piece of Samsonov's shot but couldn't stop Jokinen's strike.

"I didn't see anything after Samsonov went to the backhand," Thomas said. "He pulled it behind traffic. I knew he was going to shoot. But I never saw it. I didn't even pick it up. I saw the stick swing. That's the time period where I tried to find the puck. I never saw the puck until it was in."

Wave after wave

Part of Carolina's success was its relentless attack and pressure in the Boston zone. In the second period, during an extended shift by Eric Staal, Ray Whitney, and Erik Cole, a fatigued Michael Ryder took an interference penalty.

On the following power play, Staal stripped Steve Montador and snapped a close-range shot through Thomas to tie the game at 1-1.

"We played well tonight," said Carolina head coach Paul Maurice. "We're going to have to play like that every game. We played like that every game, we may get to overtime. That's how tight this is."

Displeasure for Bruins

If anything bothered the Bruins about the Game 3 loss, it was their lack of intensity. They lost puck battles. They didn't generate traffic in front of Cam Ward. They didn't play their physical game on the Carolina defensemen. They coughed up pucks all over the ice.

"I think this was one of those periods where I saw the most turnovers and the most plays that we made that we don't normally make," Claude Julien said of the second period, when the Hurricanes scored twice in a 69-second span. "I don't know the term to use, but they weren't very smart ones. Very uncharacteristic of our hockey club, and they put us behind the eight ball."

Ference goes down

Early in the second period, Andrew Ference took a big hit from Scott Walker and appeared to suffer a lower-body injury. Ference skated two more shifts in the second, but never came out of the dressing room for the third period or overtime.

"We had to deal with the situation," said Julien. "You lose a player during a game, that means that other players have to step up and do the job, which I thought they did. It's unfortunate, but losing a quality defenseman like Andrew certainly didn't help our cause."

Dennis Wideman led all Boston defensemen with 28:31 of ice time. Zdeno Chara logged 25:10, while Mark Stuart, skating in Ference's spot alongside Wideman, checked in with 24:34.

If Ference is unavailable for Game 4, Shane Hnidy would dress. Hnidy has been a healthy scratch in the first three games.

Sturm, Hunwick skate again

After Boston’s morning skate, Marco Sturm (knee) and Matt Hunwick (spleen) skated for the second straight day. Prior to Tuesday, neither had skated since suffering their respective injuries.

"Great. It was great," said Sturm. "It's just nice to be back on the ice and feel the ice again."

Hunwick: "It's just fun to get out there, mess around a little bit, and kind of feeling like you're getting back in the swing of things. Even if it's just skating around, nothing too difficult."

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