Brind'Amour reaches milestone in 'Canes win over Canadiens

Hockey Betting Lines

02/18/2007 - Montreal, QC (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Rod Brind'Amour scored twice to reach 400 goals for his NHL career, as the Carolina Hurricanes continued their domination of the Canadiens with a 5-3 victory at the Bell Centre.

Eric Staal finished with a goal and two assists, while Erik Cole and Chad LaRose also lit the lamp for the Hurricanes, who won for the second time in three contests overall and beat Montreal for the seventh time in the last eight encounters.

Cam Ward made a season-high 42 stops for Carolina, but the night belonged to Brind'Amour, who scored with 9.5 seconds left in the second period to give his team a 3-2 lead.

David Aebischer made 27 saves for the Canadiens, who lost their season-high sixth straight game. Sheldon Souray, Radek Bonk and Tomas Plekanec scored for Montreal.

Carolina went ahead for good in the closing seconds of the second when Ray Whitney notched his 43rd assist of the season with a pass from behind the net to Brind'Amour, who backhanded the puck past Aebischer.

Cole then scored on a shot from the right circle with 7:18 remaining and Staal put in an empty-netter with over a minute left.

Plekanec was awarded a penalty shot after being hindered from behind from Frantisek Kaberle. Plekanec then scored on a backhander with under a minute left for the final margin.

Souray scored at 17:36 of the first, but Brind'Amour tied it 1:18 into the second. Cole nearly tipped in the puck, but it deflected off of him to Brind'Amour, who capitalized on the loose disc.

LaRose batted a rebound out of the air just over 10 minutes later, but Bonk's goal, a tip-in from the low slot after a pass from Steve Begin at 12:43, tied the game.

Game Notes

Carolina is 21-0 when leading after two periods this season...The Canadiens announced goaltender Cristobal Huet will undergo surgery Sunday for a left hamstring injury and will be out indefinitely...Carolina capitalized on both of its power plays, while Montreal was 0-for-3...The Hurricanes are 28-6-3 when Brind'Amour registers a point this season. He has 1,046 career points, tied with Henri Richard for 60th place on the all-time list.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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