RALEIGH, N.C. _ Hockey games can be as much about moments as minutes and periods.
So it was Friday as the Carolina Hurricanes and Chicago Blackhawks went skate-to-skate in an intense, entertaining game at PNC Arena.
The Canes emerged with a 3-2 victory before a crowd of 18,016, again raising their sticks high after another home-ice win. That came after congratulating goalie Cam Ward, who easily was the first star of the game.
Two days after a 3-2 loss in Pittsburgh against the Penguins, the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Canes were back home to face the Western Conference leaders. That's a tough twosome, but Carolina (16-12-7) earned its 10th victory in the past 11 games at PNC Arena (10-0-1).
This was a victory built on Ward saves, several of them acrobatic.
It was built on Jordan Staal taking the puck strong to the net in the first period and Elias Lindholm following up to punch in a rebound.
It was Lee Stempniak doing the same in first, after Sebastian Aho redirected a Teuvo Teravainen pass.
It was Jay McClement scoring the Canes' third goal, in the third period, after Chicago's Patrick Kane winged a pass in his direction.
And not just scoring plays. It was Teravainen putting a shoulder into Jonathan Toews, the Blackhawks captain, and Brock McGinn putting a shoulder into Kane.
Teravainen was a teammate of Toews and Kane until this past June, when the Blackhawks traded Teravainen _ first-round draft pick in 2012 _ and Bryan Bickell to Carolina to clear up some salary-cap space.
Teravainen played with a little extra jump Friday, as if trying to make a point with a team he helped win a Stanley Cup in 2015. And Bickell, diagnosed last month with MS, was in the house to see his old team and cheer on his new one, saying he's remaining upbeat and positive about a return to hockey one day.
The Blackhawks were playing a day after a 3-2 road win against the Nashville Predators and appeared a bit leg weary in the first. But the 'Hawks began to push, hard, in the second and continued into the third.
Chicago picked up the game's first goal from an unlikely player _ defenseman Michal Kempny, who played in the KHL last season. Kemeny's goal, on a shot from the top of the left circle, was his first in the NHL.
The second goal was on the kind of play Blackhawks fans have seen so often. Toews took the puck to the net and got off a shot, the puck glancing off the chest of Vinnie Hinostroza and past Ward.
The pace was fast, for the most part, as both teams looked to attack. That meant a lot of pressure on Scott Darling and Ward, who took a couple of shots to the mask.
On one play in the second period _ one of those moments _ Ward came out to play the puck but whiffed. Hinostroza pounced on the puck, but a backpedaling Ward managed to make the stop.
Lindholm scored his second goal in as many games but left the game with an upper-body injury and did not play in the third.
