Brind'Amour's Late Goal Sinks Rangers

Rod Brind'Amour scored with 6:05 left in the third period to lift the Carolina Hurricanes to a 2–1 victory over the Rangers last night.

Cam Ward stopped 23 shots, bouncing back from a poor performance two nights earlier in which he allowed six goals in a 7–4 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. Craig Adams also scored for the Hurricanes.

Brind'Amour's winning goal came moments after the Rangers won a faceoff in the left circle of their zone.

A former Hurricanes defenseman, Aaron Ward, lost the puck, and Carolina's Justin Williams tracked it down behind the goal line. He passed to Brind'Amour in the slot, setting up the Hurricanes captain for a quick wrist shot that beat goalie Kevin Weekes high.

The Rangers pulled Weekes with about 54 seconds remaining for an extra attacker, but they managed only one shot in the final moments.

Jaromir Jagr scored the 599th goal of his career for the Rangers. He had two goals in the Rangers' 3–2 home victory over the Devils Tuesday night.

Weekes made 22 saves for the Rangers, who missed on a chance to take over sole possession of first place in the Atlantic Division and remained tied with the Devils.

Brind'Amour has a six-game point streak.

Adams put the Hurricanes up 1–0 when he scored his third goal of the season less than 3 minutes in, snatching a backhanded pass from Anton Babchuk and beating Weekes with a tap-in.

Jagr tied it with a power-play goal late in the second period. He took Brendan Shanahan's pass in the left circle and snapped a shot past Ward at 16:02.

Both teams missed on first-period breakaway chances. Cam Ward stopped Jagr cold shortly after Adams' goal. Jagr made a nifty move left and tried to beat the goalie stickside, but Ward blocked it with his right pad.

Near the end of the period, Carolina's Eric Belanger seemed to have Weekes fooled, but his shot bounced off the left post. It was the first of four Carolina shots that struck posts.