Canes come up short

Carolina loses more than a game, as Chad LaRose suffers broken leg

NASHVILLE, TENN. -- The margin for error for the Carolina Hurricanes is tiny.

How tiny?

One error, one goal, one loss.

The Hurricanes gave up the winning goal in a 1-0 loss to the Nashville Predators on a three-on-one rush.

Adding injury to insult, the Canes also lost forward Chad LaRose to a broken leg.

"I thought we played hard," Canes coach Peter Laviolette said. "It's disappointing. When you're in a road game against a team that plays as hard as Nashville does, you know you're slugging it out with them toe-to-toe the whole game. We made one mistake and it ended up in our net."

Carolina missed an opportunity to move ahead of the Atlanta Thrashers, who lost 3-2 to the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night.

The Canes are two games into a five-game road trip with two losses, and their next game is an all-important matchup at the Washington Capitals, who now sit only one point back from the Canes and the Thrashers.

After both teams went scoreless in the first and second periods, the Hurricanes opened up the third period by taking the first five shots. The Predators regrouped and began firing pucks at Cam Ward, who made big stop after big stop.

But with more than eight minutes remaining, the Predators put together a three-on-one attack against Canes defenseman Glen Wesley. Jason Arnott slipped the puck to J.P. Dumont, who banged it past Ward for the game-winner.

"I thought, for the most part, we played pretty strong defensively up until that point in the third period," said Ward, who stopped 33 of 34 shots. "I'm not sure what happened or how the play evolved, but we can't afford to be giving up three-on-one in a tied hockey game late in the third period. We'll check the video, see what we did wrong and try to move forward. It's a tough one to lose."

The Canes are now 2-2-0 since the All-Star break, and with the exception of the third period in Saturday's 4-1 loss at Pittsburgh, Carolina has played solid hockey. But with the Canes having to battle Atlanta, Washington and Florida for the Southeast Division lead, solid hockey may not be enough.

Offensively, the Canes created plenty of scoring chances and dominated minutes of play. But they couldn't solve Predators goalie Chris Mason, who stopped all 31 shots he faced.

"We had a lot of opportunities," Canes forward Eric Staal said. "We just didn't find our way to the back of the net. They did a good job of clearing those second opportunities. We probably need to do a better job of getting to the top of the crease for rebounds."

Carolina got no help from its power play, which is now one for its last 16 chances. The Hurricanes spent most of their power plays trying to secure possession, never mind getting off shots.

The Canes were once again without Matt Cullen, who missed his third straight game with distorted vision. Carolina brought up Keith Aucoin to center the third line, hoping to get more pop than it had with Jeff Hamilton.

Unfortunately, during the third line's first shift, LaRose lost his footing and crashed into the boards, breaking his left leg.

While LaRose has just 17 points this season, he's on the penalty kill unit and he's a guy the Canes depend on.

"It's a big deal," Laviolette said. "He's got a broken leg, and he's going to be out for a while. He's an energy guy and a heart and soul guy on this team. And he'll be missed."

LaRose is just the latest injury to a key player. Justin Williams went out in December with a torn anterior cruciate ligament/medial collateral ligament, and Cullen's absence continues to be a factor. Cullen was originally injured Dec. 26 and he's missed 12 games in total dealing with the aftermath of a hit from the New York Rangers' Colton Orr.

While the Canes have gotten an offensive boost from Sergei Samsonov, a player they picked up in early January on re-entry waivers, LaRose's injury makes the team's margin for error that much smaller.