NEW YORK, 16 May 2006 — Cam Ward recovered from a shaky start to make 17 saves and Cory Stillman scored the game-winner as the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated the New Jersey Devils from the playoffs with a 4-1 victory in Raleigh on Sunday.
Ward allowed a goal to New Jersey’s Brian Gionta just 57 seconds into the opening period but Carolina rallied to take the best-of-seven Eastern Conference series 4-1.
Carolina advances to meet the Buffalo Sabres in the East final starting later this week.
In San Jose, Ryan Smyth scored a pair of goals and had two assists as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Sharks 6-3, their third straight win in their Western Conference series.
Edmonton now leads the best-of-seven series 3-2, with the series headed back to Edmonton for Game Six tomorrow.
The Devils had the only four power plays of the first period and used the advantage to score the early goal and carry the play in the first period, out-shooting the Hurricanes 11-5.
Carolina stayed in the game thanks to Ward’s goaltending and a goal by Frantisek Kaberle at 8:39 of the opening period that tied the game.
New Jersey got yet another power play early in the second but could not capitalize and the Hurricanes took over from there, with Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour giving full credit to their goalie.
“You have to look at Cam Ward, he was solid for us, he gave us a lot of confidence,” Brind’Amour told reporters.
Carolina finally got a power play later in the second period and took advantage on a goal by Stillman to take the lead at 14:20.
The Hurricanes out-shot the Devils 16-3 in the middle frame and continued their domination in the third period, out-shooting the Devils 10-4 and 31-18 overall.
Carolina increased the lead on a goal by Ray Whitney at 7:22. An empty-net goal by Eric Staal with 1:28 left sealed the win, setting up the next series for the Hurricanes against the fast-skating Sabres.
“All the guys in this league know how good Buffalo is,” Brind’Amour told reporters.
“They are going to be tough and we need to be good to beat them.”
Mark Recchi and Matt Cullen both added a pair of assists for Carolina, which went 1-for-2 on the power play compared to New Jersey’s 2-for-5.
Martin Brodeur made 27 saves in goal for the Devils, who had a 15-game winning streak going before losing the first three games of this series.
In San Jose, Fernando Pisani opened the scoring in the first period and added a second goal early in the third to snap a 3-3 tie.
Shawn Horcoff and Jarrett Stoll scored the other Edmonton goals, as the Oilers won despite being out-shot 21-16. Dwayne Roloson made 18 saves in goal for Edmonton.
Scott Thornton, Christian Ehrhoff and Jonathan Cheechoo scored the goals for the Sharks. Vesa Toskala made just 10 saves.
