Hurricanes fall to Anaheim in a shootout 3-2

RALEIGH -- The Carolina Hurricanes had no problems beating Bruce Boudreau's old team this week.

Boudreau's new team was a different matter.

It took a shootout to decide Thursday’s game at the RBC Center, as Saku Koivu’s goal lifted the Anaheim Ducks to a 3-2 victory. Koivu had the only shootout score.

Early this season, Boudreau was fired as coach by the Washington Capitals, who were smacked 5-0 by the Canes on Monday. But he was quickly hired as the Ducks' head coach and now has the Western Conference team surging.

The Ducks, finishing off an eight-game road trip, were 20 points out of playoff position in early January but have fought their way back into the mix. They came into the RBC Center 15-3-4 in their past 22 games and 4-1-2 on the road swing.

The Canes took a 2-1 lead into the third period after Jamie McBain's power-play goal early in the second, but Corey Perry's power-play goal midway through the third tied it 2-2.

McBain scored on a shot from the top of the left circle at 5:40 of the second for his sixth goal of the season. The goal came after the Canes' Jerome Samson, who had scored in the first, forced a tripping penalty against the Ducks' Bobby Ryan.

Perry's 30th goal of the season tied the score after the Canes' Jeff Skinner was called for high-sticking. Carolina failed to clear the puck from the defensive zone and Perry batted in a rebound with 10:25 remaining in regulation.

Both goalies, the Canes' Justin Peters and the Ducks' Jonas Hiller, were forced to make sensational saves. Hiller had a slew of them late in the second period to keep the Canes from adding to their 2-1 lead, and Peters was pressured throughout by a good puck-possession team.

Peters was making his second straight start and coming off the shutout of the Caps as Cam Ward continues to recover from a lower-body injury.

Samson's goal gave the Canes a 1-0 lead in the opening period but the Ducks quickly answered.

Samson scored his second NHL goal with 6:08 left in the period after the Canes killed off a delay-of-game penalty against Eric Staal. After the Canes killed off the penalty, Staal popped out of the box and jumped into the play, and Samson scored on a backhander past defenseman Francois Beauchemin that fooled Hiller.

Staal and Jiri Tlusty had the assists on Samson's goal, Staal extending his point streak to seven games and Tlusty to nine games. It also was the seventh time in the past eight games that the Canes had scored the game's first goal.

But the Ducks tied it quickly. Defenseman Luca Sbisa unloaded a heavy shot from the top of the slot with 5:20 left for his fourth goal of the season.

Sbisa later had a shot richochet off the post in the first, while Hiller was snuffing out good chances by Staal -- on a power move to the net -- and then Drayson Bowman with 39 seconds left in the first.

McBain beat Hiller in the second, but Hiller made critical stops to keep it a 2-1 game after McBain's goal.

In the final four minutes of the second, Hiller stopped a shot by McBain, then a rebound by Anthony Stewart. In another flurry, Hiller twice made saves on Bowman shots, then shots by Jussi Jokinen and Skinner.

The Canes' Brandon Sutter was called for hooking as the second period ended, allowing the Ducks to start the third on the power play. The Canes killed off the penalty, only to have Patrick Dwyer flip the puck over the glass for delay of game.

Carolina's penalty killers again got the job done -- two crucial kills to start the third. But the Ducks converted on the next power play.

The Canes and Ducks faced off Feb. 8 in Anaheim and had a controversial ending. In overtime, Perry tripped the Canes' Jokinen behind the net, but the penalty was not called and Perry promptly scored to win the game.