Ray Emery stops 28 shots in Flyers’ 2-0 victory over Hurricanes

Emery, Flyers blank ‘Canes, 2-0

RALEIGH, N.C. — It doesn’t matter what team Ray Emery is playing for. The Carolina Hurricanes never seem to get anything going against him, and that made for a memorable debut with Philadelphia.

Emery made 28 saves in his first game with the Flyers and finished with his ninth career shutout, beating the Hurricanes 2-0 on Friday night in the opener for both teams.

“He’s looked more comfortable every day,” Philadelphia coach John Stevens said. “He looks alert, he’s finding pucks, he makes saves on effort and he was tremendous.”

Jeff Carter and Mike Richards scored power-play goals 22 seconds apart for Philadelphia. The Flyers put their first two shots of the second period past Cam Ward and held on for their eighth win in 10 meetings with Carolina.

“We got a lead, and we were able to keep it,” Emery said.

Playing two days after signing a six-year, $37.8 million contract, Ward stopped 25 shots for Carolina. The Hurricanes came up empty on all eight of their power-play chances and were shut out in their opener for the first time in franchise history.

“We definitely had the opportunities, especially on the power play,” Staal said. “I don’t think we moved it around terribly bad. It just didn’t fall for us. We had a lot of chances, (hit) a couple posts. … We were hoping to get to the net and kind of get an ugly one.”

With Sergei Samsonov serving a double-minor for high-sticking, Carter gave Philadelphia the lead 25 seconds into the period when he backhanded a rebound past Ward. Moments later, Richards made it a two-goal game on a deflection through traffic.

“Special teams bailed us out tonight,” Richards said. “Penalty-killing did a good job, we scored on a couple of power plays … and that was the difference.”

That wound up being plenty of offense for Emery, who spent last season in Russia but returned to the NHL hoping for more performances like this. He picked up where he left off in the preseason, when he had a 1.78 goals-against average and .943 save percentage.

“It’s definitely some preparation, but you never can tell until you actually get out there” in the regular season, Emery said.

Emery’s last three appearances against the Hurricanes have ended in shutouts. His last complete-game regular-season shutout was a 2-0 victory over Carolina in February 2007, when he was with Ottawa. The following season, he and Martin Gerber teamed to blank the Hurricanes, but Emery logged only about 5½ minutes of ice time in that game.

He was one of the key offseason acquisitions for the Flyers, who also added defenseman Chris Pronger, and they wound up locking down Carolina’s offense. Nobody came closer to scoring for the Hurricanes than Eric Staal, whose apparent goal midway through the first was disallowed because teammate Andrew Alberts was called for a hand pass.

“When you don’t score on the power play, you’re always feeling like that was the difference in the game for you,” Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. “But in terms of some of the (other) shots we got in tight, we’d like to (have scored on) those.”

NOTES: Philadelphia LW James van Riemsdyk recorded his first NHL point when he assisted on Richards’ goal. … Flyers C Danny Briere, who had at least one point in his last four preseason games, assisted on Carter’s goal. … Carolina C Matt Cullen skated in his 800th career game. … Hurricanes D Tim Gleason and Flyers LW Dan Carcillo traded punches in the first.