BOSTON — The “desperate” Bruins kept firing shots at Cam Ward. The Hurricanes’ “rock” kept stopping them.
The playoff MVP in Carolina’s 2006 Stanley Cup victory, Ward turned aside 36 shots for his second shutout in his last four playoff games and the Hurricanes won 3-0 on Sunday for a split of the first two games.
“He’s our rock,” Eric Staal said. “He needs to play well every night for us to have a shot, and he did.”
Joe Corvo, Matt Cullen and Staal, on an empty-net goal with 28 seconds left, scored for the Hurricanes.
They also split their first two games of the first round at New Jersey, then lost the next game at home in overtime.
“We’re looking to learn our lessons because we felt this good going back to Game 3 with New Jersey,” coach Paul Maurice said. “(The Bruins) are going to come in without the pressure of playing at home.”
There was plenty of pressure on the Bruins when they began the third period trailing 2-0.
“We played really good in the third period,” Boston captain Zdeno Chara. “We were really desperate to score a goal.”
He played a part in putting the Bruins in that predicament.
The Bruins got the man advantage with 6:24 gone in the second period when Joni Pitkanen was sent off for elbowing. Chara passed the puck from the left point toward Dennis Wideman at the right point, but Chad LaRose stepped between them and stole it.
He raced down the left side, skated behind the net and fed the puck out front to Cullen, who snapped a one-timer past Boston goalie Tim Thomas.
