Leafs fall to Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C.—Joe Corvo’s confidence is growing for the Carolina Hurricanes.
Corvo opened the scoring and assisted on the go-ahead goal in Carolina’s 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs last night.

The Hurricanes have won three-straight and have gone 8-2-1 since starting the season 0-2.
Corvo was a healthy scratch for three-consecutive games earlier this month, but since then the defenceman has responded with five points in four games.
“When you try to get involved, good things happen, you get chances,” Corvo noted.
“There’s a big difference between playing safe and playing confident,” he added.
“Obviously, right now I’m playing pretty confident.”
Jussi Jokinen scored the go-ahead goal while Jeff Skinner had two assists for Carolina, which played at home for the first time since Feb. 1.
Jordan Staal added a goal for the Hurricanes while brother, Eric, extended his point streak to an NHL-leading 11 games with an assist on Corvo’s goal—the first of three for the Hurricanes in the second period.
Corvo kept the puck in the Toronto zone and then took advantage of several misplays by the Leafs’ defence.
Eric Staal was knocked off the puck as he tried to pass from behind the net, but the puck drifted into the slot for Corvo, who scored to Ben Scrivens’ right side at 6:06 of the second period.
“I’m not a big defenceman that’s physical. I have to bring something to the team,” Corvo stressed.
“If I don’t bring some sort of offensive edge, then I’d be sitting on the bench, playing 12-14 minutes, and I’m not effective doing that,” he reasoned.
After Toronto’s Nazem Kadri got his fourth goal of the season to tie the score at 7:51 of the second, Jokinen gathered a loose puck in front of a sprawling Scrivens at 12:58 of the second period.
Corvo and Skinner set up the score with a rush on the power play, and Skinner also assisted on Jordan Staal’s goal at 15:09 of the second.
Dan Ellis made 22 saves for the Hurricanes, who stopped Toronto’s four-game winning streak.
Ellis, Cam Ward’s back-up, has won three of his four starts this season.
Scrivens made 30 saves for Toronto, which fell to 6-2 on the road.
“They’ve got some good hockey players up front,” Kadri said of the Hurricanes.
“We figured we’d get the puck in deep and kind of try and use their D-men as their weak point,” he noted.
“But they did an excellent job today and we just weren’t good enough.”
Elsewhere in the NHL, Montreal nipped Florida 1-0 (OT), Colorado beat Minnesota 4-3 (SO), the N.Y. Islanders edged the N.Y. Rangers 4-3 (SO), Washington shaded Tampa Bay 4-3, and Nashville blanked Phoenix 3-0.