'It's a game to build on'

RALEIGH -- To the extent that a hockey game played before the first candy bar hits the fryer across the street at the State Fair can be a litmus test, Wednesday's game was just that for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Down two goals to Evgeni Malkin and the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Hurricanes rallied in the third period to force a shootout, where the Pittsburgh Penguins would triumph in the sixth round for a 3-2 win.

As a benchmark for the Hurricanes' ability to defend Malkin, the results were mixed -- dismal early, better late. As a benchmark for their ability to persevere and rally from inauspicious circumstances, the trademark of their playoff campaign right up to the point the Penguins swept them out in the Eastern Conference finals, it was a qualified success.

"It's a game to build on," said Hurricanes forward Ray Whitney, who scored both Carolina goals. "Whenever you play the Stanley Cup champions, and you have to come back to do it, it's a tribute to our team that we didn't change our game to do it."

It was an ominous beginning Wednesday, with Malkin offering his own personal rebuttal to the Hurricanes' offseason moves, some of which were designed specifically to help the Canes deal with players like Malkin.

Five months later, it's clear Malkin still knows exactly where the top of Cam Ward's left shoulder is, and it's just as clear that the Hurricanes still are searching for a way to stop him.

The Hurricanes added defensemen Aaron Ward and Andrew Alberts and forwards Tom Kostopoulos and Stephane Yelle over the summer, and it didn't make a huge difference Wednesday. Ward and Tim Gleason kept Sidney Crosby off the score sheet, but it's Malkin who remains the bane of the Canes.

His goal, Pittsburgh's second, was an impossibly quick short-side one-timer from the bottom of the left circle that zipped over Cam Ward's shoulder at exactly the same point where Malkin's dazzling Game2 backhand whizzed by last May.

Malkin already had made his presence felt with a more subtle play. In the moments after Tuomo Ruutu caught Kris Letang circling out from behind the Pittsburgh net and nearly separated his head from his shoulders as neatly as he separated Letang's helmet from his head, the Canes swarmed over Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and did everything but score.

That first-period flurry ended when Malkin deftly moved the puck along in the neutral zone to Michael Rupp, who dropped Cam Ward to the ice on a two-on-one and flipped the puck over him. Whatever energy the Ruutu hit created left the building in a hurry.

It resurfaced in the third, another echo of the playoffs that saved the Hurricanes. Unlike the conference finals, the Canes had some emotion left in their tank, and they used it to good effect in the third period.

Just when it looked like Malkin had once again single-handedly wiped out the Canes, they tightened up their defense and jump-started their offense. Whitney deflected a pair of goals past Marc-Andre Fleury, and Ward made a now-you-see-it-now-you-don't glove save to deny Bill Guerin an open net in the third period.

It didn't end well in the shootout, but the Hurricanes were happy to get there at all after the way things stood at the second intermission.

Wednesday's game was not a completely fair test, with the Hurricanes missing Joni Pitkanen, who in theory would be a critical component of any potential anti-Malkin strategy but in practice wasn't able to do much last spring. Of course, there's no telling how he'd do as part of a deeper group in a different role.

The Hurricanes will have to wait to find out, but they'll take Wednesday's point and move on, with stopping Malkin still on the agenda but progress noted for the record.

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