Saturday, Oct. 31, 2009

Carolina Hurricanes (2-6-3) at Philadelphia Flyers (5-4-1), 1 p.m.

The Carolina Hurricanes will try to end a lengthy slide this afternoon, when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers for a battle at Wachovia Center.

The Hurricanes have dropped seven straight games, giving the club its longest skid since another seven-game slide from January 25-February 11, 2003. Carolina's last eight-game losing streak came earlier that season, from January 8-22.

Carolina, which hasn't won since beating Florida by a 7-2 score on October 9, suffered its most recent setback Wednesday against visiting St. Louis. David Perron finished with two goals and an assist to lead the Blues to an easy 5-2 victory at RBC Center.

Joe Corvo and Scott Walker had power-play tallies for Carolina, which is just two setbacks away from the longest losing streak in franchise history, a nine- game slide that came when the team was still located in Hartford during the 1982-83 season.

Cam Ward allowed four goals on 17 shots in defeat.

"The nice part is when you wake up in the morning, you know what the problems are," Carolina head coach Paul Maurice said. "The hard part is you don't know where to start. We have to respect the defensive part of the game. We are looking like we are flip-flopping back and forth, you know, one night we are good defensively and don't work hard offensively."

The Hurricanes will again be without forward Tuomo Ruutu today, as he serves the final test of a three-game suspension for last week's hit on Colorado's Darcy Tucker.

Carolina has yet to win on the road this year, having posted an 0-4-2 mark as the guest. Next up for the Hurricanes is Sunday's home test against San Jose.

While the Flyers haven't reached Carolina's depths yet, Philadelphia has lost two straight and five of their last seven games.

The Orange and Black were last in action Tuesday evening in Washington, where the Capitals dealt the Flyers a 4-2 setback. Alexander Semin notched the game- winning goal in the third period as Washington erased a two-goal deficit to take the win at Verizon Center.

Scott Hartnell and Braydon Coburn scored power-play goals for the Flyers, while Ray Emery turned back 32-of-35 shots in the loss.

"We had a two-goal lead and it seemed like we kind of lost focus. I think we took it for granted a little bit," Emery said. "With a two-goal lead, you want to stick it to them."

Although the Flyers put winger Simon Gagne on injured reserve earlier this week due to a hernia, Philadelphia will get back a pair of players today in forward Blair Betts and defenseman Ryan Parent. Betts hasn't played since dislocating his shoulder against Washington on October 6, while Parent has missed the last four games with a groin injury. Both players are expected to be activated off IR before today's game.

Flyers forward Danny Briere is questionable for today's game after leaving Friday's practice early with a lower-body injury. Briere has five goals and two assists in 10 games this season.

Philadelphia is playing the first of two straight at the Wachovia Center today and will play six of its next seven games in the City of Brotherly Love. The Flyers are 3-2-1 as the host this year.

The Flyers notched a 2-0 win in Carolina on October 2, giving them three straight victories over the Hurricanes. Philadelphia has taken eight of the last 10 overall matchups in the series, including three of five held at the Wachovia Center.