WRAL Sports Fan

WRALSportsFan

Carolina Widens Division Lead With 5-1 Win Over Lightning

Mar 1, 2008

General Manager Jim Rutherford looks pretty good right now.

The Canes got contributions from a number of their new players, as Sergei Samsonov (2 goals, one assist), Joe Corvo (one goal) and Tuomo Ruutu (one goal, one assist) all scored for Carolina in their 5-1 win over Tampa Bay. With the win, the Canes widened their division lead to five points over Washington.

Patrick Eaves also contributed an assist on Samsonov's third period goal.

Tampa Bay opened the scoring 7:04 into the game, as Jeff Halpern gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead, but Carolina reeled off five straight goals to take a 5-1 lead with 14:00 left in the game.