RALEIGH, N.C. -- Edmonton Oilers coach Craig MacTavish and Carolina Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette agreed before the start of the Stanley Cup Final that special-teams play, faceoffs, penalty kills and power plays, would be a big factor in the outcome. Edmonton has been, until the Final, the best penalty-killing team in the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs and Carolina has been best on the power play. The teams were among the NHL's best on faceoffs during the regular season and first three rounds of the Playoffs.
The Stanley Cup Final major story line changed at 14:06 of Monday's Game 1 when Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson, leading the playoffs with 12 victories, was injured in a goal-mouth collision. Roloson suffered a third-degree sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee and a hyperextended right elbow. He's gone from the playoffs. Edmonton's remaining goalies, Jussi Markkanen and Ty Conklin, struggled with injuries and inconsistent play during the regular season. MacTavish chose Markkanen, a good puck-moving goalie, to start Game 2.
Markkanen played well, despite the 5-0 outcome. The Oilers took 11 penalties, including Georges Laraque's boarding major and game misconduct with 3:16 left in the game. Carolina took only seven penalties, but only four while the game hung in the balance.
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Schedule / Links:
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| Gm. 1: CAR 5, EDM 4 | Photos |
| Gm. 2: CAR 5, EDM 0 | Photos |
Gm. 3: June 10, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Edmonton (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
Gm. 4: June 12, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Edmonton (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
*Gm. 5: June 14, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Carolina (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
*Gm. 6: June 17, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Edmonton (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
*Gm. 7: June 19, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Carolina (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
| *if necessary |
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Three of the Hurricanes' goals came on power plays. Carolina won 58 percent of the faceoffs.
Some of Markkanen's teammates felt they let him down with undisciplined play, but MacTavish disagreed.
"If we had 'Roly' in the net, the outcome would have been the same," said Oilers first-line center Shawn Horcoff. "Jussi played well tonight and he made a lot of good saves. We were taking too many penalties. Our team success is based on winning the 5-on-5 play, getting in on the forecheck, getting in on net and getting our shots on net. By taking too many penalties, we're taking too many players out of the game and creating trouble for ourselves. We've got to get better in a lot of different areas. We played their style, not our style.
"We kind of abandoned (Jussi) when we continued to take penalties in the third period," center Mike Peca said. "He made a lot of tremendous saves."
MacTavish sought to take the criticism off his players and disagreed that they'd let down their goaltender.
"There were some pretty crazy bounces on the goals, so I am not going to say that at all," MacTavish said. "I thought we were guilty of over-aggressiveness early in the game. A lot of us are trying to do too much and it's a situation right now where we have got a bunch of players, they are all trying to be difference makers, and we need a more predictable game out of a lot of our players.
MacTavish praised the Hurricanes for their strategic play and their effectiveness in capitalizing on their man-advantage situations.
"The thing that they have done to us in the first two games is they have won the special team games," he said. "The 5-on-5 play has been pretty even, but they are more opportunistic at this point in the series than what we have been. I think we have carried the play at times 5-on-5. They have capitalized on their power play. Their power play has been more effective than ours. We'll have to turn that around at home, but I think we're so excited and everybody wants to be such a factor that at times that's being a negative for us.
"But I won't say that our team let the goaltender down at all tonight. Maybe in the third period when we're taking a bunch of penalties, but those things happen in the Final when the game gets out of hand. I thought we came out in the third, our mindset was still we were going to win the game in the third period. We came out in the third, had a great shift and a half, through the first 1:30 of the period, and had a number of chances to score, and then Sergei (Samsonov) can't get out of the way of (Cam) Ward, and we take the penalty. And then at that point we started running around on our penalty kill. Then all of a sudden it's 4-0, and for all intent and purposes the game is over."
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Jussi Markkanen felt comfortable in net, but feels there is room for imporvement.
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"We took a lot of penalties and they capitalized on their chances," Markkanen said. "I felt fine from the start of the first period and made some good saves. I thought we moved the puck well and kind of played well but, in the end, we gave up five goals. There are some places for improvement. They got a lot of chances and I have to be there to make those saves. I felt pretty comfortable and I definitely want to build from here and be able to help the team win."
First goals in hockey games often change the tenor of the game and that was the case in Game 2. Andrew Ladd came down the right wing on his first-period goal, his off wing, and snapped a shot that Markkanen said he had a good look at, but falling defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron deflected the low shot higher with his left skate.
"I moved my glove into position and I was thinking I wasn't going to give up the rebound," Markkanen said. "It wasn't the start I wanted but it's tough to win when you don't score."
Oilers right wing Fernando Pisani leads the playoffs with 10 goals, including the first goal Monday. He was frustrated by Carolina's defensive scheme and Cam Ward's outstanding play. He said the Oilers were frustrated when they couldn't score during the first-period power plays.
"Obviously, we want to score on power plays," Pisani said. "When we couldn't, it was frustrating but we can't let it get to us. We've got to get more shots on net. They were blocking our shots in front of the net. And, we've got to do a better job of getting to the net. Jussi played well. A lot of those goals were deflected. I don't think it was in any way his fault. We gave up a lot of good scoring opportunities."
