by Adam GretzFiled under: Hurricanes, Wild
It took the Carolina Hurricanes until December 7 to win their first road game last season, dropping their first 13 games away from the RBC Center. To open the 2010-11 season they not only won the first away game they played, they did so on an entirely different continent, knocking off the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in Helsinki, Finland on Thursday afternoon. When you're talking about the Hurricanes Eric Staal and Cam Ward are clearly the go-to-guys and the two players that make this team tick. But they clearly need a few other players to emerge in some sort of supporting roles if they're going to rebound from what can only be described as a disappointing 2009-10 campaign.
Jussi Jokinen burst onto the scene last season with a career-high 30-goals after being picked up off the NHL's scrap heap a year earlier, and he started off on the right foot Thursday netting a goal and adding an an assist in the win.
Along with that, third-year center Brandon Sutter also made a huge impact for the 'Canes recording a pair of goals while logging over 19 minutes of ice-time, more than any other forward on the team not named Staal. It wasn't just his offense that made an impact, however, as he was given quite a bit of responsibility in the faceoff circle. It wasn't always pretty, but he came up big when Carolina needed him most.
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