There was some sentiment before the series started by many donning the oh-so-chic Black and Gold-colored glasses that the masked man for the Carolina Hurricanes wasn’t in the same class of goaltender as two-time All-Star Tim Thomas.
It’s pretty much the same dose of zealous overconfidence that outsiders looking in have displayed when breathlessly comparing the rosters of the Boston Bruins with that of the resilient Carolina Hurricanes. There was a brazen assumption going into the series that the Black and Gold skaters would simply blow the Hurricanes right off the frozen sheet much like they did against the beaten-up and battered-down Montreal Canadiens.
Quick news flash to the card-carrying members of Bruins Nation: Both Cam Ward and the rest of his merry band of Hurricanes are for real in this series and there’s every indication that Carolina is going to present the same kind of challenges to Boston that they did in dealing out a season fatality to New Jersey in Round One.
"This is playoff hockey," said Bruins coach Claude Julien following the shutout loss. “We’re not in the second round against a team that doesn’t deserve to be here. They’re as good as we are.
"They earned their way here, and we can’t just look at the last series and say, well, it was 4-0 against Montreal. (Then) it’s going to be 4-0 against Carolina," added Julien. "We knew it was going to be a tough series, and right now we’re facing a little bit of adversity."
The well-worn knock is that the 25-year-old Ward is more a masked barometer of the defense playing in front of the goaltender rather than talented individual performer, and that his 2006 Conn Smythe Trophy is something of a hockey aberration.
That’s simply not the case, however, and the casual hockey follower saw 36 reasons why the Canes goaltender is a formidable foe in this Stanley Cup semifinal series on Sunday night. Ward was little more than adequate in the first two periods when the Bruins weren’t exactly mustering Grade A chances by the bucket load – and then simply missing on the excellent chances they did earn themselves.
But things changed in the third period when Boston entered the final 20 minutes riding a tidal wave of momentum. A play that looked like a sure Chad LaRose goal for Carolina at the end of the second turned out to be a no goal after a seven minute-long instant replay review. The Bruins then added a little more oomph to the gas pedal with a power play midway through the period when Tim Gleason flipped a puck over the glass for a delay of game penalty. The B’s sputtering PP unit finally caught fire and hurled everything they had between the Carolina pipes, but Ward stood tall with all manner of chaos erupting around him.
The Canes goalie made an amazing pad save on a Michael Ryder forehand bid all alone in front of the net – his best stop of the night -- after the natural born scorer picked up a loose puck from a scrum near the left post. Ryder glided away from the fray -- which consisted of Zdeno Chara and Mark Recchi taking swings at a loose puck in front after a Dennis Wideman blast from the point was stopped by Ward -- and hopped left to right in the crease area while flicked the puck at an open part of the net, but Ward impossibly kicked out for the save. It was the most memorable of Ward's 36 stops in a solid shutout performance for the Carolina puckstopper -- his fourth career playoff blanking in a pretty solid body of postseason work.
"We were all standing on the bench thinking it went in. You know, it’s a good lesson for us to understand that (the Hurricanes) goalie is never out of the play," said Bruins defenseman Aaron Ward, a former team of Ward's that saw the goalie help carry his to team to the Cup in 2005-06. "He’s a competitor. Don’t take the opportunity lightly if you have an open net. You’ve got to bury it."
Seconds later he added another full-extension pad save on a Dennis Wideman bomb from the high point. Ward made at least four solid saves during that frantic two-minute power play for the Bruins, and that essentially slammed the door on Boston in Game 2.
It was classic Ward: not breathtaking and not as attention-grabbing as a guy like Thomas can be at his best, but quietly effective with sprinkles of outstanding thrown in whenever the game was hanging in the balance.
Now each goaltender has one standout game in their series ledger, and
RSS Center
