As I said before last night's game, to beat this team we have to stay out of the box (we didn't) and try to keep the lanes open in front of Huet (we didn't).

No doubt it was a great effort by the team. No doubt the officiating was abominable. And no doubt Ward had a once-in-a-lifetime performance that (hopefully) he will not soon repeat. And for the most part, we did a good job of not taking stupid penalties and of making sure that Huet could see the shots. Just not good enough to overcome Ward's performance.

Assuming we have good referees Friday and a less superhuman Ward in the Canes net, these two keys to winning will still stand in my mind. We will get the shots and scoring chances and net some of them. But we have to keep Carolina off the power play and let Cristo see the puck. Otherwise, the Canes have shown they will make us pay.

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