Injury dampens victory

Open-ice hit knocks out Hurricanes' Letowski

PITTSBURGH -- Back in a groove after a winless start to the season, even a nasty hit that sent one of their own to the hospital couldn't break the Carolina Hurricanes' stride.

The Hurricanes won their second straight game in a 5-1 romp over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, but their concern was for Trevor Letowski, who was taken off the ice on a stretcher after an open-ice hit by Penguins forward Colby Armstrong midway through the first period.

Letowski was released from a Pittsburgh hospital late Saturday night after receiving treatment for a suspected concussion and lacerated forehead. He traveled with the team to Tampa after the game.

That was about the only blemish on a performance that picked up where the Hurricanes left off in Friday's 4-3 win at the Atlanta Thrashers, Carolina's first win after opening 0-3-1.

"Obviously, we didn't get off to the start we were hoping for, but with that being said, we've done the best we can to put those four games behind us," said goalie Cam Ward, who followed his 31-save performance Friday with 25 saves on Saturday. "We've got our rhythm back, and the guys are working hard and getting rewarded for it."

Scott Walker scored twice while Eric Staal scored the game's first goal in his first NHL meeting with younger brother Jordan. They went head-to-head in the third period for the game's only Staal vs. Staal faceoff.

"Yeah, I won it, too, for the record," said the elder Staal, who wagered a Gatorade on the draw after exchanging text messages with his brother all day.

For the Hurricanes, the sight of one of their own seriously injured on this ice was all too familiar, coming seven months after Erik Cole suffered a broken neck in the team's last visit to Pittsburgh, when Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik hit him from behind into the boards.

Letowski had cut across the middle from the left wing to direct a pass toward the net. As he followed through, Armstrong caught him with a blind-side hit from Letowski's right that knocked out Letowski before he hit the ice forehead-first, his arms limp.

"All of us on the bench saw it coming, and he certainly didn't lay off him at all," Cole said. "To see him lying there face-down in a pool of blood, [Staal] even turned to me and said, 'Don't look.' It wasn't pretty."

Armstrong was still shaken after the game, asking reporters if they knew how Letowski was doing.

"It was a clean hit, but it's too bad that that happened," Armstrong said. "I feel awful about it. I was sick to my stomach after I saw that. It was a little tough."

Staal scored less than three minutes into the game, and Walker made it 2-0 less than a minute after Letowski was hurt by slipping a shot from down near the goal line between Marc-Andre Fleury and the post. It's the kind of shot that stays out when you're losing and goes in when you're winning, and the Hurricanes are officially on a winning streak.

"I thought the guys worked hard from our end out," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "They skated, they competed. It was a good road win."

Not only have they scored more goals in the past two games (nine) than they did in the first four (seven), Ward put together another strong performance. He was particularly good early, before the Hurricanes opened up the three-goal lead.

He denied Sidney Crosby point-blank by doing the splits and slapped a leg against the post to stop a John LeClair breakaway. He never was beaten by the Penguins -- their goal came when Carolina defenseman Anton Babchuk accidentally deflected a Kristopher Letang shot under Ward's left leg on a Pittsburgh power play.

Suddenly, the team that couldn't score -- and couldn't stop anyone from scoring -- is not only scoring their goals, but the other team's too.

"These guys never stopped working hard and never stopped talking," Walker said. "You expect to be better, and that's a great feeling when you're with a team like that."