Canes leave no doubt

RALEIGH -- Every Carolina Hurricanes skater was on the scoresheet Friday night -- or so it seemed.

In fact, 12 players had a hand in goals as the Canes raced past the Florida Panthers 7-2 at the RBC Center. While the happiest may have been defenseman Jay Harrison, who picked up his first NHL goal, there were a lot of smiles in the Carolina locker room after the Southeast Division game.

Jussi Jokinen had a goal and two assists. He was smiling. Matt Cullen had a goal and assist. He was smiling, too.

Tom Kostopoulos made his first goal as a Hurricane memorable. The forward swiped the puck from defenseman Bryan McCabe in front of the Florida goal for a shorthanded score that gave the Canes the early lead as Carolina jumped to a 3-0 advantage in the first period.

Tuomo Ruutu, Ray Whitney and Rod Brind'Amour all collected their first goals of the season. And Tim Gleason, Niclas Wallin, Sergei Samsonov, Scott Walker and Joe Corvo had assists as the Canes evened their record at 2-2.

"It was good," Kostopoulos said. "We thought we were playing well defensively, but we wanted to get some offense going.

"I think all four lines got in on it. The 'D' were in on it. We had been putting a lot of pucks on net, but nothing was happening, but I think this gives everyone a little more confidence that if we do the right things, good things will happen."

And the Canes, limited to three goals in their first three games, did all that damage on what was a mostly quiet night by center Eric Staal, who had just two shots on goal. Carolina also failed to score with 1:07 of a two-man advantage in the first period.

Florida coach Peter DeBoer could have used travel as a reason for the lopsided loss. The Panthers (1-2) opened the season with a pair of games against the Chicago Blackhawks in Helsinki, Finland, and were playing their first game back in the U.S.

But DeBoer didn't excuse his team's sloppy performance, saying, "I don't care if you play on the moon to start the season."

Canes coach Paul Maurice was as pleased with the bruising play of his defensemen as the scoring onslaught. Carolina played without Joni Pitkanen, out with a sore knee, but the Hurricanes knocked the Panthers around at times, with Aaron Ward and Andrew Alberts getting in some jarring hits.

"I thought we came out with the right approach to the game: a great amount of physicality," Maurice said. "Our defense did a real good job breaking the cycle. We've had a hard time with them in our end of the ice -- they're very quick, and they're hard on the puck.

"I thought our back-end, as well as they have in the first four [games], were physical."

Not to be overlooked was goaltender Cam Ward. He made a nifty save on a Nathan Horton shot 29 seconds into the game and added a few more acrobatic stops.

Tomas Vokoun had a tough night in net for the Panthers before being lifted early in the third.

Jokinen scored the Hurricanes' third goal when Vokoun and defenseman Dmitry Kulikov misplayed the puck behind the goal, with Jokinen swooping in to collect the loose puck and score for the 3-0 lead.

"The game was over in the first 20 minutes," DeBoer said. "We turned pucks over and made mental mistakes, and they capitalized."

Ruutu had scored the Canes' second goal with a bullet of a shot on a breakaway. Whitney made it 4-0 in the second off a well-executed pass from Wallin, and Cullen's score early in the third -- a rocket from the left circle -- gave the Canes a 5-1 cushion.

Brind'Amour and Harrison added their goals in the last five minutes, Harrison's score coming at 15:33. Shawn Matthias and Michael Frolik had the Florida goals.

"It was nice to get a lot of guys involved, get a lot of guys get that feel of putting the puck in the net," Cullen said.

And a lot did.

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