Canes end road trip with win

ST. LOUIS -- Finally, the Carolina Hurricanes broke through in the power play.

Tuomo Ruutu touched just enough of Eric Staal’s shot from the left wing to slip it under the goalie, and it was enough for a 1-0 nail-biting win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night at the Scottrade Center.

“I didn’t even know [I hit the puck],” Ruutu said. “They probably looked at it from the tape. I just tried to get my stick on it. I guess I hit it. It’s tough.”

Nobody said the Canes had to win pretty.

“We’ll take the goal,” Staal said. “It doesn’t matter who scored it. … The ‘D’ made a nice play on the blue line and gave me a little more time with the puck on the wall. I just tried to get it on net. [Ruutu] made a nice place being right in front of the goalie and got it across the line just enough.”

It was the Canes’ seventh power play in a defensive battle. The power play has been a sore spot for the Canes as of late.

“I got a little nervous when the power plays were working in our favor,” coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had some looks and some opportunities. We couldn’t get it in. Couldn’t get a bounce.”

But Carolina played good defense throughout. The Canes outshot the Blues 29-19.

“That’s probably one of the best defensive games I’ve seen us play in my three years,” Carolina goalie Cam Ward said. “Up until that last 10 minutes we did an excellent job of shutting them down. We didn’t give them any time in space.”

The Canes didn’t allow a potent Blues crew too many opportunities.

And the goal came at the 10:20 mark, after Blues wing Paul Kariya went to the box for two minutes on a hooking penalty.

The Canes had to hold their breath moments later, when Staal was sent to the box for roughing.

The Blues brought a quick flurry of shots in the third period. They had another power-play opportunity late, when Chad LaRose was sent to the box for putting the puck over the glass, but the Canes killed it with 50 seconds left and then closed out the game.

In all, the Canes didn’t commit a lot of penalties, which has been another area of weakness where they’ve improved.

The Blues were not the team to be given an advantage. They headed into the game leading the league in power-play goals with a 34 percent success rate.

Their first power play came when Tim Gleason was sent to the box for fighting. But Cam Janssen, who traded punches with Gleason, was also called for fighting and roughing.

The win ends the Canes’ six-game road trip with a 3-1-2 mark. They also moved ahead of the Washington Capitals by a point to take over first place in the Eastern Conference’s Southeast Division.

“It was a real good way to end it,” Laviolette said. “You can always look back and say there was some points we left on the table, but we dealt with a lot, the travel, the injuries and everything else. To finish 5-2-2 is real positive for us.”