Ward, Hurricanes stop Thrashers, 5-2

Cam Ward flopped all over the ice, blocking nearly every shot that came his way. Then there was Kari Lehtonen, who had trouble stopping anything.

Ward made 40 saves for Carolina, and Lehtonen was yanked in the second period of the Hurricanes’ 5-2 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Wednesday night at Atlanta. Lehtonen stopped only nine of 13 shots.

Carolina managed to win rather easily despite getting outshot, 42-18. Ray Whitney and Rod Brind’Amour scored two goals apiece, but the unquestioned star was Ward.

“Cam made some really tough saves,” Coach Peter Laviolette said. “A lot of them seemed headed for the net, but all sudden there was a toe, a pad, a shoulder to get in the way. He was extremely sharp, extremely focused.”

Whitney’s second goal gave Carolina a 4-1 lead and prompted Thrashers Coach Bob Hartley to replace Lehtonen with 4:51 left in the second period.

Johan Hedberg went the rest of the way in the Atlanta nets and was barely tested, facing only four shots while Ward was saving shots at the other end.

“When you make some saves, especially early, it always helps,” Ward said. “I knew I had to get better at stopping the first five shots so we wouldn’t get down early. I felt relaxed. I felt calm. Any time you feel like that, you know it’s going to be a good night.”

Toronto 4, Tampa Bay 2 -- Ian White scored a tiebreaking power-play goal midway through the third period at Tampa, Fla.

White picked up a loose puck off a deflected pass by Matt Stajan and scored from in close to give the Maple Leafs a 3-2 lead with 8:17 left. He hadn’t scored a goal in his previous 22 games.

Hal Gill got the Maple Leafs even at 2-2 at 1:51 of the third. The goal ended a 26-game goal-scoring drought.

Colorado 5, Columbus 3 -- Jose Theodore made 19 of his 41 saves in the third period to help the visiting Avalanche improve to 18-1-2 against the Blue Jackets.

Wojtek Wolski, Brett McLean, Joe Sakic, Mark Rycroft and Brad Richardson scored for Colorado, which has won five of its last seven.

Dallas 4, St. Louis 1 -- Eric Lindros scored two goals, Mike Modano had a goal and an assist to help the host Stars (10-2) get off to the best start in franchise history. Their best previous 12-game mark was 9-2-1 in 1996-97 and 1982-83.

Detroit 3, Calgary 2 -- Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom scored 79 seconds apart in the first period at Detroit, and the Red Wings won their fourth in a row. It was the third consecutive loss for the Flames.

Nashville 5, Edmonton 3 -- Former Ducks star Paul Kariya had three assists to help the Predators stop the Oilers’ six-game home winning streak.

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Ken Hitchcock was hired as a pro scout by the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday, less than two weeks after they fired him as their head coach. Hitchcock was let go when the Flyers had the fewest points in the NHL. They have gone 2-1 since then under former Hitchcock assistant John Stevens.... Buffalo center Tim Connolly, out indefinitely because of a concussion, was put on the long-term injured reserve list to free salary cap space. The move frees a portion of Connolly’s $2.9-million salary for a team that began the season about $100,000 short of the NHL’s $44-million cap.