Defense Keeps Hurricanes on Top

The Carolina Hurricanes, a team that talked before the season about playing a more open style, put together a winning November with solid defense.

Sami Kapanen scored late in the second period and Arturs Irbe stopped 25 shots for his 27th career shutout as the Hurricanes defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 2-0, at Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday night.

“We’ve worked on our defense in practice and it’s starting to pay off,” Carolina defenseman David Karpa said. “There were a couple of practices that weren’t too fun where we worked down low all of practice, one on one, two on two, three on three. It’s starting to give us results.”

Carolina has given up one goal or less in seven of 10 games to move to .500 (10-10-3-1) for the first time since Oct. 21. The Hurricanes lead the Southeast Division, which has no team with a winning record, by three points over Washington.

“We were kind of getting heckled, but who really cares right now,” Karpa said. “The bottom line is if we finish first in our division, we’re in the playoffs.”

Irbe’s shutout was his third of the season and third in his past five games against the Flyers, who saw their four-game road winning streak stopped.

“Irbe was brilliant again tonight,” Philadelphia Coach Craig Ramsey said. “We had some pretty good chances down around the net, but we couldn’t find a way to get it past him.”

Bates Battaglia scored an empty-net goal with 12 seconds left to seal it for Carolina, 7-2-0-1 in its last 10 games.

Keith Primeau, Carolina’s former captain, had two good scoring chances in the third as he raced in on Irbe. He fired the puck wide on his first attempt, then was caught from behind by David Tanabe on a short-handed breakaway with 11:12 remaining.

Toronto 6, New York Islanders 4--Mats Sundin scored twice and added an assist to help the Maple Leafs rally to defeat the Islanders at Uniondale, N.Y.

Darcy Tucker added an empty-net goal with 14.6 seconds left. Tie Domi added two goals and Sergei Berezin one to help the Maple Leafs win their fifth consecutive at Nassau Coliseum. Domi has five goals in his last six games.

Mariusz Czerkawski, Dave Scatchard, Mark Parrish and Taylor Pyatt scored for New York, which has one win in 10 games (1-8-0-1).

Phoenix 2, Minnesota 0--Mike Sullivan scored a short-handed goal, and backup goalie Roberta Esche ended a two-game losing streak as the Coyotes defeated the Wild at Phoenix.

Esche handled 30 shots in his sixth start of the season and first since Jamal Mayers of St. Louis elbowed him in the head Saturday.

Nashville 3, Chicago 0--Tomas Vokoun stopped 22 shots for his first shutout of the season and third of his career as the Predators earned their third consecutive victory by defeating the Blackhawks at Chicago.

The Blackhawks dropped to 2-7-0-1 at the United Center.

Montreal 4, Vancouver 3--Jose Theodore made 23 saves as the Canadiens won their third in a row by defeating the Canucks at Vancouver, Canada.