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Scout
10-08-2005, 07:05 PM
Mario Lemieux. Ziggy Palffy. Sidney Crosby.
When the game was on the line, not one of those superstars was any match for Cam Ward.

The Carolina Hurricanes' 21-year-old rookie goalie, making his first NHL start, stopped all three Pittsburgh Penguins in the RBC Center's first shootout as the Canes emerged from their home opener with a 3-2 win Friday.

Ward had 28 saves during regulation and overtime, taking a shutout and 2-0 lead into the third period after first-period goals by Eric Staal and Cory Stillman. The Canes blew the lead by putting the Penguins on the power play, but Stillman scored in the shootout and Ward made sure the Penguins didn't.

TURNING POINT
After the Canes blew a 2-0 lead and ended up in a shootout, rookie CAM WARD stopped MARIO LEMIEUX, ZIGGY PALFFY and SIDNEY CROSBY in the shootout to get the Canes two points in their home opener.

Standing-room tickets sold to boost the sellout crowd to 18,787. It was the seventh oversold crowd since the Canes moved to the building in 1999 and the first in the regular season.

1. CAM WARD, CAROLINA: As first NHL starts go, this was about the best-case scenario.

2. ZIGGY PALFFY, PITTSBURGH: Always a threat, and it was no surprise he was there to tie the score.

3. ERIC STAAL, CAROLINA: For the second game in a row, the Canes' most dominant offensive player.


"It's just one game, but it's a great way to start," captain Rod Brind'Amour said. "What you saw there is what his potential is. That's what everyone's been raving about since a couple of years ago when he came to our camp. He's got the skills, he's got all the tools, but the thing that impresses me most is his head. He's like a veteran out there."

Ward's mother and aunt drove more than 40 hours from Edmonton for the game; his father, sister and fiancee flew in Friday, a last-minute trip planned after Martin Gerber was injured Wednesday and Ward's start became a forgone conclusion.

Hurricanes fans, meanwhile, were back in the building after an 18-month forced absence.

It was worth the trip and it was worth the wait.

Ward's first stop was a glove save on a Lemieux shot likely headed wide, not deemed a shot on goal; his next two were kick saves. Ward may have made his NHL debut in Wednesday's third period, but that's one heck of a baptism by fire right there.

After a whistle, Staal skated by the Carolina net to tell Ward, "Your first save was on Mario Lemieux!"

"I know," Ward replied. "And they didn't even give me a save!"

Staal got the scoring started by banging a shot off the right skate of Penguins defenseman Josef Melichar for his second goal in as many games. Staal went crashing into the end boards, arms extended, in a celebration that counts as extraordinarily exuberant by his standards.

On their way to outshooting the Penguins 14-7 in the first, the Canes extended their lead when Brind'Amour hit Stillman popping out of the penalty box with a heretofore illegal two-line pass.

For the Canes, the first two periods were everything their opener at the Tampa Bay Lightning wasn't. Buzzing around the Penguins net, it's hard to imagine the Canes playing much better, although Stillman was willing to argue the point.

"I think we still can, I really do," he said. "We had some opportunities. The other side of this is that when you have those opportunities and you don't put them away, they can come back to bite you. Obviously, if we were up four or five goals in the first period, then I would say we couldn't."

But there's no argument that the Canes needed to play better in the third as the Canes marched to the penalty box and the Penguins marched back into the game. Malone scored early in the period after a Bret Hedican clearing attempt hit the skate of referee Paul Devorski, and Crosby set up Palffy in front on a four-on-three power play with 1:24 to play.

In the shootout, neither Lemieux nor Palffy nor Crosby could beat Ward, who in four-plus periods this year has given up three goals on 41 shots.

"This is an opportunity of a lifetime," Ward said. "It's something I've worked my whole life to get to, and I realize it's only going to get harder."

Ward certainly made it look easy Friday. In the locker room afterward, more than a dozen reporters and television cameras crowded around him.

"I don't blame them at all," said Staal, a teammate of Ward's in the minors last season. "I've seen it before. If I were in the net and I saw Mario and Palffy and Crosby coming down on the shootout, I'd be shaking a little bit. But he doesn't seem to be fazed very much."

The Canes set the tone early when Aaron Ward ran Lemieux hard into the end boards. But it was a younger Ward who really did the job on Lemieux and his teammates.

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