Jokinen helps Hurricanes beat Wild 5-4

Nov 15, 6:02 pm EST

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RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—Jussi Jokinen(notes) and the Carolina Hurricanes finally got to feel good about themselves Sunday.

Jokinen scored the winning goal in the shootout and the Hurricanes beat the Minnesota Wild 5-4 to end a 14-game winless streak.

“It’s one of the best feelings,” Jokinen said. “We’ll take the two points.”

Carolina’s second shooter in the shootout, Jokinen went to his backhand and lofted the puck above the glove of Niklas Backstrom(notes). It was Jokinen’s 25th career shootout goal, most in NHL history. He also has eight game-winners in the format.

When Michael Leighton(notes) stopped Marek Zidlicky(notes) on the Wild’s final chance, the Hurricanes had their first win since Oct. 9.

Leighton made 28 saves in his second start of the season and Ray Whitney(notes), Jokinen, Joe Corvo(notes) and Brandon Sutter(notes) scored in regulation for Carolina, which blew two three-goal leads.

“We’re not throwing any back at this point,” Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. “We’ll take it.”

Robert Earl scored the first two goals of his career, John Scott(notes) added his first career goal and Antti Miettinen(notes) also scored for the Wild. Minnesota has never won in Carolina and is 2-10-1 on the road this season.

Earl and Scott sparked the Wild’s rally late in the second, scoring 19 seconds apart to slice Carolina’s lead to 4-3. Earl then tied it 2:21 into the third, snapping the puck past Leighton’s glove.

“It was pretty special,” Earl said. “It hasn’t really sunk in. I’m ultimately just glad that I was able to contribute and give us a chance to win.”

It was a costly victory for the Hurricanes, whose winless streak was one short of the franchise record. Three Carolina players left with injuries and did not return—defenseman Joni Pitkanen(notes) (lower body), forward Scott Walker(notes) (upper body) and forward Stephane Yelle(notes) (lower body).

Carolina opened the scoring 2:45 into the game when Matt Cullen(notes) won a faceoff in the Minnesota zone and passed the puck to Tuomo Ruutu(notes). Ruutu snapped a shot at Backstrom, but the puck deflected off Minnesota defenseman Kim Johnsson’s(notes) skate to Jokinen, who swiped it into the net.

Corvo added a power-play goal near the end of the first and Whitney made it 3-0 in the second when he slapped a shot past Backstrom, who was screened on the play.

Miettinen then got the Wild on the boards but Whitney responded for the Hurricanes. He eluded Wild defenders near the boards before centering to Sutter, who was wide open in front of net.

“It wasn’t pretty, but we got the win,” Leighton said. That’s all this team cares about right now.”

NOTES: Carolina D Aaron Ward(notes) (lower-body injury) missed the game. Ruutu earned his 100th NHL assist on Jokinen’s first-period goal. Minnesota won the first meeting of the season 3-2 in overtime. Carolina has allowed three or more goals in 12 straight games.

Updated Nov 15, 6:02 pm EST
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26 Comments

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  1. <i>martin_rulz6</i>
    26. Posted by martin_rulz6 Mon Nov 16 12:44am EST

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    Joe, I would like to see that myself, see wins get rewarded more.
  2. joe m
    25. Posted by joe m Sun Nov 15 10:34pm EST

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    Off topic but bear with me...am I the only one that thinks the NHL's point scoring system needs to be changed? For example the rangers are 11-8-1 for 23 pts, the islanders are 7-6-7 for 21 pts. If you think about it the rangers are 11-9 and isles 7-13 yet teams are being rewarded for losses cuz its OT. I have no problem with getting a point for an OT loss but wouldnt you think a win should be 3 pts then? then the good teams would get the seperation they deserve, and would encourage teams to go for the win rather than just settle for the point.
  3. Dan G
    24. Posted by Dan G Sun Nov 15 10:28pm EST

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    Man Wild how you lose to this garbage team, at least you showed heart and came back to get a point.

    @ Connor - Wild were down 3-0 and 4-1. You do the math bozo.
  4. <i>dayne62</i>
    23. Posted by dayne62 Sun Nov 15 9:40pm EST

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    Paul Maurice, Ummmmmm, No Comment
  5. Rattle
    22. Posted by Rattle Sun Nov 15 9:22pm EST

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    & here I was just getting ready to bench Corvo on my fantasy team. I'm just glad for the 'canes that the losing streak is over for the.

    @Connor N:

    The reporter works for the Associated Press. Just send them a resume, I'm sure they could use a guy with your grammatical prowess.
  6. Kanay D
    21. Posted by Kanay D Sun Nov 15 8:57pm EST

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    I wonder if the coach took them out for pizza and beer to celebrate. It sucks to be the WIld, not being able to cash in on the streak, but it had to end sometime. I bet it feels great, Canes fans. Congrats. I hope you guys can build off this and have a long winning streak now.

    Go Flyers!
  7. Connor N
    20. Posted by Connor N Sun Nov 15 8:49pm EST

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    the canes didn't blow two 3 goal leads. and what a boring headline. i could write a better article than this guy.
  8. danny r
    19. Posted by danny r Sun Nov 15 8:37pm EST

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    California Kid...thank you......DavidW, back atcha.....finally get a W, and some dipwad tries to crap on our parade. The Canes seem to always find a way to lose these games, and almost did it again today. Can we say 14 wins in a row? Nahhhh, but will probably have to play .650 hockey from here out. Good luck guys!
  9. Dutch
    18. Posted by Dutch Sun Nov 15 8:14pm EST

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    @14 John H. "Jokkinen helps Hurricanes beat Wild 5-4"...Yeah what an unoriginal annoying headline. WTF is he thinking. Knew it had to end sometime, Canes didn't make it easy, congrats to them. Where's that idiot Corey Mohammed Lidle to tell us yet again the Canes didn't sell out the 2006 Cup Finals...supposedly.
  10. California KID
    17. Posted by California KID Sun Nov 15 7:53pm EST

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    the wild suck
    congrats on finally getting a win Carolina
  11. DavidW
    16. Posted by DavidW Sun Nov 15 7:41pm EST

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    F*** the Hurricanes
  12. Erik T
    15. Posted by Erik T Sun Nov 15 6:58pm EST

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    Oh my gawd! Its a f*cking miracle!

    Gonna get wasted, need to wasted. Wanna get wasted? I'm a get wasted!
  13. John M
    14. Posted by John M Sun Nov 15 6:29pm EST

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    Wow, what a great headline. Extremely original. Congratulations to the sad AP writer who went to that well for the 10,000th time. WEAK.
  14. Travis H
    13. Posted by Travis H Sun Nov 15 5:59pm EST

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    @ gwecto..

    Ward didnt get the win.. lol hes hurt
  15. Erik
    12. Posted by Erik Sun Nov 15 5:58pm EST

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    To gwecto! dude if u actually pay attention to the nhl, cam ward is out for the next 3 weeks or so due to injury. know what ur talking about next time.
  16. <i>gwecto</i>
    11. Posted by gwecto Sun Nov 15 5:45pm EST

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    Too bad it took Cam Ward this long to win because of his horrible team, Cam Ward is one of the best golies in the NHL who deserves more wins.
  17. Jimmy
    10. Posted by Jimmy Sun Nov 15 5:10pm EST

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    Congrats!!!!
  18. dude123158
    9. Posted by dude123158 Sun Nov 15 5:09pm EST

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    Great f***ing job refs, you did it again.
    Lets start off by recapping a few goals. First off you got the hooking penalty on Miettinen that would'nt be enough to rip toilet paper, the call on boogaard when he went in for a hit causing the scared canes player to dive out of the way giving boogaard a trippig penalty... HOW do you get that wrong, and last the penalty on clutterbuck for roughing that obviously should have been an even up call, both of the players got their hits in but only clutterbuck was called. On at least 2 of these(not sure about the first) the canes scored a goal that could have been the game changer. There were also multiple peneltys on the canes that were not called like the high sticking right after the faceoff with 17 seconds left that could possibly have been the game changer.
    In my eyes the canes still suck balls but i guess they pay the zebras better than we did.
  19. NHL_SharksFinatic
    8. Posted by NHL_SharksFinatic Sun Nov 15 4:53pm EST

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    Minnesota.. you are officially the 2nd worst team in the NHL. Its pretty pathetic if you lose to the Canes. Luckily, the Canes are worse than you.. just not today.

    Congrats to the Hurricanes... finally winning. Doesn't matter if you can't get a win streak.. just don't lose excessively from now on.
  20. Nwaf A
    7. Posted by Nwaf A Sun Nov 15 4:46pm EST

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    god just appeared for the canes hopefully they can start winning again.
  21. Nwaf A
    6. Posted by Nwaf A Sun Nov 15 3:42pm EST

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    wow the canes can score there problem though is holding on to the lead.
  22. Nwaf A
    5. Posted by Nwaf A Sun Nov 15 2:05pm EST

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    hurricanes have to win one time or another.

    2-1 canes
  23. <i>doubled1980yz</i>
    4. Posted by doubled1980yz Sun Nov 15 1:33pm EST

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    The Hurricanes will lose their 15 straight, cause of Backstrom. 3-0 final.
  24. Jordan
    3. Posted by Jordan Sun Nov 15 11:54am EST

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    Haha I would hope the Wild would actually can beat the hurricanes, they seem like they are the better team of the 2 but I don't know what the Wild will actually do this year, we will see
  25. Almost Lewboski
    2. Posted by Almost Lewboski Sun Nov 15 10:28am EST

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    Wild will discover a new way to lose.
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Three Stars

  Three Stars
R. Whitney
 		Ray Whitney
Hurricanes - LW
Goals: 1
Assists: 2
R. Earl
 		Robbie Earl
Wild - LW
Goals: 2
Assists: 0
B. Sutter
 		Brandon Sutter
Hurricanes - C
Goals: 1
Assists: 1

Goaltending

Goalie Team Shot Save
Niklas Backstrom Min 35 31
Michael Leighton Car 32 28

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