Hurricanes Get First Home Win, Matsumoto Gets His First 2

Added on Nov 04, 2010 by J Merrill in

NHL

Jon Matsumoto scored his first two NHL goals in the Carolina Hurricanes’ 7-2 rout of the New York Islanders on Wednesday night. This was an important win for the Hurricanes as they lost both of their first two home games. This was an issue that would haunt any coach at this point in the season, but on the back of Matsumoto and Cam Ward they got it done.

Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice talked as though a curse was lifted from the team. “It was good, because now you don’t have to talk about it anymore, We score seven, and we’re a scoring machine.” He also had this to say about Matsumoto “He’s not going to score two every night, but if he can play well in his own end, then we can take some pressure off the Staal line and some of these other lines so they don’t have to play 22 minutes every night.” He also commented on how happy he was with Joe’s practice in camp leading up the season.

Both of Matsumoto’s goals came off assists from Samsonov, and Joe was quick to credit his game play. “Sammy made some great passes tonight,” said Matsumoto, “Both of my goals were directly from him, and if it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would be able to get them.” Matsumoto was just called up from the AHL on Sunday night, and was happy he is helping out on the fourth line. “(Hurricanes General Manager) Jim Rutherford came down today and told us that if you’re going to play in the league, at least have fun while you’re doing it,” said Matsumoto.“It’s a lot more fun when you’re winning.”

Eric Staal was able to help with the offense by creating chances for his team mates, but in the past five games he hasn’t been able to light the lamp. That changed in the final minutes of the first period. Coach Maurice commented on the drought, “Goal scoring is always good, It makes players feel good about themselves, and we are an energy team. If we have good, positive feelings and lots of energy, then we’re a good hockey team. You don’t want to have a lot of guys sitting too long without scoring.”

This is a problem Jeff Skinner doesn’t have. The 18 year old, yes I said 18, has scored 10 goals in his first 12 NHL games. His line mate Larosa has been trying to keep his head in check. He said “He’s a really good kid, I look for stuff to pick on him about, and I can’t really find anything. He’s a great player and has a lot of potential to be a great, great player.”

Coach Maurice thought there was an interesting turning point in the game when the Hurricanes found themselves on the south end of a 5 on 3. “I thought in the first 20 seconds of that five-on-three it was a little tense and a little quiet, and then Sutter blocks a shot, the crowd goes nuts and all of the sudden those three guys on the ice got a lot of energy and are laying their bodies down,” he said. “I thought the fans had something to do with that.”

The Hurricanes still have an issue with Joni Pitkanen’s upper-body injury. Pitkanen was forced to leave the game against the Flyers Sunday night, but had to leave the game again tonight after just 6 minutes. Maurice said “He was cleared to play and fine, and then he got hit again, We’ll see tomorrow.”