Aaron Ward Articles - Penalty killers give Hurricanes life

Penalty killers give Hurricanes life
June 14, 2006
Source: Shawn P. Roarke \| NHL.com Senior Writer

Going into Wednesday's Game 5 at RBC Center, Aaron Ward and Carolina's penalty-killing unit have successfully defused four 5-on-3 situations.	RALEIGH -- Despite the phenomenal success the Carolina Hurricanes have had killing 5-on-3 penalties against Edmonton, Carolina defenseman Aaron Ward will be happy if his team does not encounter another two-man disadvantage for as long as the best-of-seven Stanley Cup Final lasts.
	Going into Wednesday's Game 5 at RBC Center, a potential clincher for the Hurricanes, Carolina has already successfully defused an amazing four 5-on-3 penalty situations, each of those going a long way toward changing the momentum of the game in which they were killed.
	Ward, unless he is one of the men in the penalty box, is generally one of Carolina's primary penalty killers.
	As such, Ward has drawn his fair share of 5-on-3 duty in this series and performed as admirably. He is justifiably proud of his team's perfect record in killing two-man penalties, as well as the fact that the team has killed 24 of 25 overall penalties in this series.
	But, the defenseman needs to chase no further penalty-kill glory, especially when success is often contingent upon having to sacrifice one's body by laying out in front of a Chris Pronger slap shot.
"The anxiety level as a player when you see those 5-on-3's, it just kind of freezes you," Ward said. "I hate them. It's an absolute firing range. If I have to see that 5-foot-5 stick of Chris Pronger's windup any more tickling the sky as he waits for that one-timer, I can't wait for the season to be over. I've never seen more rubber fired at me."
Monday night was just another example of the game-changing effect a successful 5-on-3 kill can have. Edmonton took it to Carolina in the opening minutes of the first period, playing the body effectively and with reckless abandon. The onslaught forced Carolina into all to typical penalty trouble -- a march that culminated when Ray Whitney and Aaron Ward took penalties just 48 seconds apart late in the first period.
The Rexall Place crowd, sensing the potential for Carolina blood, was in a frenzy, pushing the home team forward with its voices, urging their boys to covert their latest good fortune into a lead. Instead, the Oilers struggled to find any consistency during the 72 seconds of two-man superiority.
Not surprisingly, the Oilers generated very few quality scoring chances after frittering away that golden opportunity. When Carolina scored in the second period to take the lead, Edmonton remained bereft of offensive answers, absorbing the 2-1 loss that has put their Stanley Cup dreams on life support.
"We have had trouble with the (penalty-kill) pressure from Game 1, and it's the reason why we are down 3-1 in the series," MacTavish said. "If we got a couple power-play goals in the series, a couple more power-play goals, we're at least tied -- at least tied.
"We have been down this road before with our power play, where we start to get frustrated and then you lose your patience on the power play, you take your first opportunity, and when you are on top of your game on the power play, you don't take a mediocre opportunity when you are in your set-up. You have got the patience to explore a better quality chance. Now our first chance to shoot the puck, we shoot it whether there's shin pads there or not."	Niclas Wallin and the Hurricanes have killed off 24 of 25 penalties overall in this series.
More often than not, there are shin pads, or sticks, or skates, or shoulder pads in the way of the Edmonton shooters. Pronger, Jaroslav Spacek and Jarret Stoll, Edmonton's three big bombers from the point on the power play, have not been able to get shots through Carolina's dedicated penalty killers, thereby limiting the amount of work asked of young goalie Cam Ward.
The Hurricanes clearly have a plan to neutralize the Oiler power play, although they are loathe to share it with the series still hanging in the balance. Aaron Ward says that the assistant coaches provide the penalty killers with plenty of tape on Edmonton's tendencies throughout the playoffs with the man advantage.
For that reason, he says, Carolina was prepared when Edmonton tried to draw Carolina's penalty-killing forwards toward the blue line in an attempt to open up some ice between the Circles at a greater depth than they had concentrated on in past games.
"We were ready for that and we were able to react quickly," Ward said.
Carolina's preparation is the by-product of Laviolette's insistence that Carolina remain structured within its zone during penalty-kill situations. So, while it may look like mayhem as his players chase the puck from player to player and hurl their Bodies in front of slap shots, there is a method to the madness.
"As far as the penalty kill goes, I think it is a lot more structure," the coach said. "I think that you have to have assignments, you have to have routes, you have to execute those routes. You have to be willing to pay a price by blocking a shot, head first if you had to. And, I think, the biggest thing is execution."
Something Carolina has clearly mastered in this series.

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