Sweat is goal of soccer kicks

RALEIGH -- Justin Williams bounced off the wall and lunged forward for a last-minute kick save to keep the ball aloft. Without a flinch, Craig Adams led with his head to tap the ball across to Cam Ward.

It's a common pregame ritual for NHL players, gathering a circle of teammates to juggle a soccer ball in the hallway an hour or so before every game. Two nights earlier in Philadelphia, it ended with Hurricanes winger Erik Cole spraining his foot, and he is expected now to miss seven to 10 days.

With the blessing of Carolina coach Peter Laviolette, however, a small group of Hurricanes were back kicking the soccer ball around before Monday night's game against Vancouver.

"I think it's been a bit overblown," Adams said before joining six other Hurricanes in a pregame kick. "If somebody was warming up in the weight room doing lunges and they twisted their ankle, it's pretty much the same as what happened.

"It's certainly not something you want to have happen to yourself or anybody else, but you know, everyone's got their own routine for getting ready. If we thought what we were doing was particularly risky, we wouldn't do it, you know?"

Ward said he's never seen someone get injured kicking a soccer ball around before a hockey game. The benefits still far outweigh the unlikely risks, Ward added.

"It's just to get a little bit of sweat on before we go on the ice for warm-ups," Ward said. "He could have injured it riding the bikes or doing weights before. It was just a freak accident."

CRASH, BURN, NO GOAL: Chad LaRose netted the winner in Carolina's 3-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks seven minutes into the third period. You would have a hard time convincing anyone in the Hurricanes' locker room that shouldn't have been his second goal of the evening, however.

Referee Wes McCauley waved off an apparent score by LaRose early in the second period, ruling that LaRose had crashed into Vancouver goaltender Roberto Luongo before the puck dribbled into the net. LaRose appeared to get a little help on his downward slide as he split two Vancouver defenders, a detail noted by Carolina coach Peter Laviolette.

"Typically you don't dive nose-first into the goaltender from the top of the circle. There's usually a reason why. I thought he got chopped a little bit, but the referee saw it a little different," Laviolette said.

So what do you call his follow-up score in the third period?

"Yeah, it was poetic justice," LaRose said.

TAILWINDS: N.C. State women's basketball coach Kay Yow dropped the puck in the ceremonial faceoff before Monday's game as part of Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night at the RBC Center.

Yow, who has breast cancer and had chemotherapy and biological treatments during last basketball season, received a standing ovation from the crowd.

* Winger Justin Williams went scoreless, ending his points-scoring streak at five games.

* Albany (AHL) call-ups Ryan Bayda and Keith Aucoin logged 11:33 and 3:22 of playing time, respectively.