Carolina sweeps defending champs

--The Carolina franchise swept the Boston Bruins for the first time in history, winning all four meetings. With Boston one of the NHL's top teams and the Hurricanes struggling to move out of the Eastern Conference basement, the results are head scratching. The Hurricanes had gained points in every game during a season against Boston, twice going in 3-0-1. This, however, marks the first time the Carolina franchise has ever swept a reigning Stanley Cup champion when there has been more than one meeting in a season.

"It's a good test, it's a good challenge," coach Kirk Muller said of facing the Bruins, who once were fierce rivals of the franchise during the days of the Hartford Whalers.

--The Hurricanes had an eight-game streak without allowing a power-play goal end when the New York Islanders scored two of those in the first game back from the All-Star break. "The tough part for us was we weren't really sure what was going wrong," center Brandon Sutter said. So a 17-for-17 streak of penalty kills ended, but the Hurricanes started a new streak and added to that by killing two Boston power plays (both abbreviated to less than two minutes) on Thursday night.

QUOTE TO NOTE
"That's something we have to be a little better on as far as taking penalties." -- C Tim Brent, who has spent time on penalty-killing and power-play units.

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