The start of a six game road trip for the Carolina Hurricanes involved a meeting with the Vancouver Canucks. Carolina entered the game with a record of 11-9-5. Meanwhile, the Canucks entered with a 13-10-4 record. Vancouver had its struggles at home with a 4-5-3 record on home ice.
A strong first period from the Hurricanes kept things close with the Canucks, on Dec. 5 at Rogers Arena, for a while. Yet, the Canucks started to open the game up in the second period until defenseman Derrick Pouliot notched his second tally of the season.
Things did not get much better for the Canes as the second period went along.