Maurice evens up with 2-0 win over Leafs

Cam Ward made 35 saves and the Carolina Hurricanes snapped a five-game losing streak with a 2-0 victory over the Maple Leafs on Monday night, giving coach Paul Maurice a victory in his return to Toronto.

Joe Corvo and Chad LaRose scored to back Ward’s second shutout of the season for Carolina.

The Maple Leafs were blanked for the second consecutive home game.

Maurice spent the past two seasons coaching the Maple Leafs and acknowledged recently that games against his former team mean a little more.

Toronto won 6-4 at Carolina on Thursday, but the Hurricanes returned the favor in the rematch by winning 2-0, earning key points as they look to get back in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.

Corvo broke a scoreless tie just more than a minute after Tomas Kaberle was penalized for clearing the puck over the glass from his own end. The Hurricanes defenseman one-timed a shot past a screened Vesa Toskala at 16:26 of the second period.


LaRose scored with just 4.9 seconds left in the period. Maple Leafs forward Alexei Ponikarovsky had a great chance to clear the puck from his team’s end, but put it on the stick of Matt Cullen instead. Cullen quickly found LaRose all alone in front and it was 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Toronto came out with more desperation in the third period but Ward was equal to the challenge—getting his pad on Niklas Hagman’s shot from in close before turning away Ian White’s slap shot a few moments later. Ward later stopped Ponikarovsky’s chance from the top of the crease to preserve the shutout.

The Maple Leafs have had no trouble scoring away from home of late, but it’s been 127 minutes, 51 seconds since they’ve found the back of the net at Air Canada Centre.

That was only part of the bad news for the team Monday.

Toronto coach Ron Wilson said after the morning skate that he expected to have defenseman Mike Van Ryn back in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 18. However, Van Ryn failed to pass a test to clear the way for his return from a concussion and remained sidelined.

Toronto has just three wins in its last 13 games and heard a few boos from the home crowd once again. The team faces Boston at home on Wednesday before getting a couple of days off during this weekend’s All-Star break.