Canes' rally falls short

RALEIGH -- The Carolina Hurricanes may have played their best game of the season Wednesday night.

The Canes' Ray Whitney thought so. Jussi Jokinen thought so. So did coach Paul Maurice.

Against 28 other teams in the NHL, the Canes' best may have been enough to win. But not against the Pittsburgh Penguins, the defending Stanley Cup champions and the best team in the league.

The Penguins outlasted the Canes 3-2 in a shootout at the RBC Center, getting the winning score from Chris Kunitz in the sixth round.

Pittsburgh won its fourth straight game, but only after the Hurricanes, getting two goals from Whitney, rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the third period to force overtime and squeeze out a point.

"To come back like that in the third period, we can build off that," said Jokinen, who had the Canes' only shootout score. "We competed hard, we skated hard. That might be a big point by the end of the season."

The Hurricanes (2-3-1) have a shootout win this season over the Tampa Bay Lightning and ripped the Florida Panthers 7-2 last week. But this was against the Penguins, the powerful, highly skilled team that swept the Canes out of the playoffs last season in the Eastern Conference finals.

"The two games we won, I don't think we felt very comfortable coming off the bench after the win thinking we were playing our game," Maurice said. "Tonight, I thought, was really our first game where we got back to looking like the team that plays the style of game we want to play.

"What we've been lacking is a feeling that we can play in the other team's end a little bit. We hadn't generated much in the offensive zone at all. Our cycle game wasn't there, our forecheck game wasn't there. That really is our identity, the game that we need to get to. It was a start."

The Canes stayed in the offensive zone much of the first period, only to have fourth-line center Michael Rupp score for the Pens off an Evgeni Malkin pass. Malkin, who tormented the Hurricanes in the playoffs, then did his thing early in the second -- a blistering shot that beat goaltender Cam Ward at the post.

The Penguins had a 2-0 lead and the crowd of 14,053 seemed deflated. Would the Pens cruise to another easy win?

Whitney's first goal, his 100th with the Hurricanes, at 4:25 of the third made it a 2-1 game and Canes fans were stirring. They were at full throat a minute later when Ward made a spectacular glove save on a point-blank shot by Bill Guerin off a Kunitz pass.

And Ward would do it again in overtime, denying Malkin on a shot from the slot, in finishing with 36 saves.

"His efforts are the real reason we got a point tonight," Whitney said.

Whitney, moved to the top line with Eric Staal and Tuomo Ruutu in the third, tied the score with 9:56 to play, redirecting a shot by Tim Gleason past Marc-Andre Fleury. Both teams then had power plays later in the period, but couldn't pull ahead as Ward and Fleury -- both competing to make Canada's Olympic team -- were at their best.

"That's what you expect from those two," Guerin said.

In the shootout, Jokinen's second-round score was answered by Sidney Crosby. Ward and Fleury turned back shot after shot until Kunitz finally knocked in the winner in the sixth round.

The Penguins now are 6-1 and have opened the season 5-0 on the road for the first time in franchise history. But there weren't a lot of long faces in the Canes' room after the fast-paced game.

Carolina played without defenseman Joni Pitkanen and forward Erik Cole, both out with injuries. They fought hard at both ends. They picked up a point.

"We played well," Whitney said.

Well enough to head out on the road for the next four games feeling a lot better about themselves.