Four games ago, the Carolina Hurricanes began what they hope will be the finishing kick they need to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Hurricanes have won three of their past four, starting with a 1-0 victory over Buffalo on March 15. The Sabres currently occupy the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

But the Hurricanes are knocking on the door, sitting just three points behind Buffalo in ninth place. Toronto is in 10th, two points in arrears of Carolina.

If the Hurricanes are going to leap past the Sabres and hold off the Leafs to slide into the postseason party, they will need to play well down the stretch. It won’t be easy. The Sabres come to Raleigh on April 3, followed three days later by Western Conference power Detroit. Washington, the Southeast Division leader and second in the East, plays the Hurricanes at home on March 29.

Carolina also plays host to Montreal on March 30 and faces division rival Tampa Bay on Friday, Saturday and in the regular-season finale April 9.

—30—

A 5-2 lead disappeared Tuesday night in a span of 10 minutes, but the Carolina Hurricanes were well served by youth in the shootout.

Jeff Skinner, who at 18 years old is the youngest player in the NHL, scored the only goal of the shootout round, as the Hurricanes beat Calgary 6-5 in Raleigh, N.C.

Skinner also finished with an assist for the Hurricanes, who raced to a 5-2 lead. Jussi Jokinen scored two goals and assisted on a third in his first game back from injury. Erik Cole, Tuomo Ruutu and Eric Staal each added a goal for Carolina.

Calgary got goals from Niklas Hagman, Curtis Glencross and Rene Bourque to turn the three-goal disadvantage at the 16:48 mark of the second period to a 5-5 tie at the 7:39 mark of the third. Jarome Iginla and Jay Bouwmeester also scored for the Flames.

Carolina pulls within three points of Montreal and Atlanta, who are tied for the final two Eastern Conference playoff spots.

—30—

If ever there was a team that seeks to carry momentum from the final three months of a hockey season, it indeed is the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes missed the playoffs by eight points in 2009-10. But the sheer face the Canes made it that close to the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference is a testament to the team’s play after an absolutely horrid start to the season.

Carolina won just five times in the season’s first two months, and found itself 14-28-7 on Jan. 18. But from there, the Canes found themselves. The Canes won five time in February, nine times in March and twice in April.

A big key to the season is the play of goaltender Cam Ward, who struggled through an up-and-down, injury-marked season. Rod Brind’Amour retired in the offseason, but goal scorer and captail Eric Staal is back to power the offense.

Carolina begins the season with quite a long road trip, facing Minnesota in a two-game series Oct. 7-8 in Helsinki, Finland.

—30—

The team initially seemed interested in sitting down with Whitney to discuss a new contract, but that has since changed.

The Hurricanes believe that Whitney is not signable given his current contract demands, so there is no reason to sit down and talk.

Carolina has made it clear that they do not expect to be very active on the free agent front this offseason.

Their plan to spend very little money to improve the team certainly isn’t going to go over well with their fans.

Their recent run of success didn’t last long for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Having won two straight games entering Monday night’s contest at Dallas, the Hurricanes were shut out by Marty Turco and the Stars, falling 2-0.

Manny Legace made 27 saves for Carolina, but the two goals he allowed was enough to keep the Canes winless on the road this season (0-8-3).

It looked like Carolina had slipped one past Turco in the second period. But the officials ruled Ray Whitney kicked the puck onto his stick, and four minutes later Dallas scored off a deflection to double its lead to 2-0.

In the third, Carolina had a golden chance to halve the lead, spending more than 90 seconds with a two-man advantage. But the Hurricanes were turned away time and time again by Turco.

Carolina continues its Westward swing Wednesday at Anaheim.

—30—

Remember when the Carolina Hurricanes reached the Eastern Conference finals last spring?

That happened just six months ago, but it might as well happened six centuries ago after what the Hurricanes have endured through the first month of the NHL season.

Saturday’s 3-2 loss at Columbus extended Carolina’s losing streak to 12 games, and its 2-11-3 mark is the worst in the NHL. What’s even worse is goalie Cam Ward suffered a leg injury when he was cut with a skate and will miss the next four weeks. Carolina carried the lead into the third period but could not hold on against the Blue Jackets.

Carolina signed veteran netminder Manny Legace, who was playing for the Thrashers’ AHL affiliate in Chicago, to try and bridge the gap until Ward returns. But in reality, a victory — anyway, anyhow — would be a nice salve for a team that truly is scuffling right now.

Monday marked one full month since the Hurricanes’ last victory, and their seven points puts Carolina a remarkable 17 points behind Southeast Division leader Washington. After losing by five, four and three goals last week, Carolina dropped a pair of one-goal decisions last weekend and still have not won a game away from home.

The Hurricanes hope to finally break their franchise-record skid Wednesday when they play host to Los Angeles. Friday, Carolina plays host to the Islanders.

–30–

For a team that’s averaged 97 points the past four seasons, having just six points through eight games and sitting in fourth place in the division is a strange feeling.

The Carolina Hurricanes will look to find themselves and start a winning streak when they hit the road for a Midwestern weekend swing at Colorado and Minnesota this weekend.

The Canes need something to jump start their 2009-10 season, one which has began with lackluster performances and disappointment. The  stumble came Wednesday, when Carolina lost 4-3 to a New York Islanders’ team that was winless on the season entering the matchup.

Offensive woes have kept Carolina from hitting its stride so far this season, Carolina having scored just 18 goals in eight games. And while the Canes are 2-1 in the Southeast Division, they already are six points behind two-time defending division champion Washington.

–30–

It took five extra minutes of overtime and a shootout, but the Carolina Hurricanes finally found their way into the victory column.

Sergei Samsonov and Tuomo Ruutu scored in the shootout, and goalie Cam Ward made 29 saves as the Hurricanes snapped a season-opening two-game losing streak Tuesday, beating Tampa Bay 2-1 in Raleigh for the Canes’ first victory of the season.

For a team that reached the Eastern Conference finals a year ago, the victory erased some of the angst from two ugly season-opening losses last weekend, games Carolina lost by a combined 9-2 score.

But Carolina got it done Tuesday, opening a key early stretch of Southeast Division contest with a victory.

Jussi Jokinen scored for Carolina in the first period, converting on a power play. Tampa Bay tied the game in the second period, but the Canes’ defense held the Lightning at bay the rest of the way.

–30–

Nine goals allowed in their first 120 minutes of the season was not what the Carolina Hurricanes had in mind.

A 2-0 loss to Philadelphia Friday night opened the 2009 season on a sour note, and the taste grew even more bitter the next night when Boston hung seven goals on the Canes in a 7-2 defeat, a game in which forward Erik Cole broke a bone in his lower left leg (he’ll miss at least a month, perhaps longer).

Heading into Tuesday’s Southeast Division opener against Tampa Bay, a Carolina team that made it to the Eastern Conference finals last season is seeking something positive to turn around what’s been a wretched six periods so far this season.

Only Vancouver and defending Western Conference champion Detroit are 0-2 so far, and maybe there’s a good place to start, the fact that if Detroit is also 0-2 on the season, maybe things aren’t so bad.

But all joking aside, nobody expects either the Wings or Canes to stay below .500 for long. However, defending division champion Washington already is out to a 2-0 start, and Atlanta looked impressive in beating Tampa in its season opener Saturday.

The last thing the Canes need to do is fall behind in the standings early on, as points earned now don’t have to be made up later. With three games this week against division opponents (Tampa Tuesday, Florida Friday, at Tampa Saturday), a good week of hockey will level-set things for Carolina.

But another bad week, and suddenly the Canes could be six or eight points out of first just five games into the season. Not exactly what Carolina, or its fans, had in mind.

–30–

The Hurricanes simply didn’t have the offensive firepower to keep up and compete with the explosive Penguins.

It also didn’t help that goaltender Cam Ward, who was really hot the first two rounds, cooled off considerably against Pittsburgh.

That said, a big part of the reason that he cooled off was the combination of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.