three-pointers, but could get no closer as Phillips took over

RALEIGH, N.C. -- The previous time the Carolina Hurricanes had a month like this, a rare playoff appearance soon followed. The Hurricanes capped their first 10-win month since 2009 by beating the St. Louis Blues 3-1 on Friday night. Jeff Skinner scored the go-ahead goal in the second period, Alexander Semin added an empty-netter with 1:04 left and Nathan Gerbe scored on an early power play. Opening a four-game homestand that precedes the Olympic break, Carolina earned its fifth win in six games while staying in the mix in the crowded Metropolitan Division. "We want to have a good feeling going into the break and we want to sort of build off this win," Skinner said. David Backes scored on the power play for St. Louis. The Blues, who average 3.36 goals per game, missed a chance to pull even with Chicago atop the Central Division by losing just their fourth game against an Eastern Conference team. "Hard to find a lot of good players in our game today," St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock said. "They deserve a lot of credit. They skated. They checked. They played hard. And we looked like we had the body language like we wanted an easier game. Didnt get it." Anton Khudobin stopped 26 shots for the Hurricanes. Jaroslav Halak made 28 saves in his fourth straight start, but had his four-game winning streak snapped. Khudobin stopped all 10 shots he faced in the third period, including a nifty leg save on Alex Pietrangelo with about 1 1/2 minutes left. And, he got some help from the goal post after two Blues -- Jaden Schwartz and Jay Bouwmeester -- each rang it in the final 2 minutes. "You need the post to be a goalies best friend," Carolina coach Kirk Muller said. Semin then tacked on his highlight-reel empty-net goal that capped the Hurricanes best month in a while. They went 10-4 in January, and their previous 10-win month in March 2009 led into their only playoff appearance since 2006, when they won their only Stanley Cup. Skinner put Carolina up 2-1 off a draw 1:51 into the second. After Jordan Staal won a faceoff, the puck found Skinners stick and he beat Halak with a wrist shot from the slot that clipped the goalies glove for his seventh goal of the month. "Didnt really mean to bank it off his glove and in," Skinner said. "You just try and get it to the net sometimes." That turned out to be enough support for Khudobin, who earned the decision in every game this month for Carolina. He helped the Hurricanes leapfrog idle Columbus and Philadelphia in the division standings, with 59 points. When the night started, only 11 points separated second place from the cellar in the Metropolitan. The Hurricanes never trailed on Friday, taking advantage of some sloppy play early by the Blues -- who were whistled for three penalties in the opening 11:25. Carolina went up 1-0 when Gerbe one-timed a slick cross-ice pass from Andrej Sekera 3:46 in. "The puck had moved, and there was an opening there and he found a soft area," Sekera said. "He was wide open, so I just tried to get it to him, and he did a pretty good job." The Blues, who have the leagues second-best power-play unit, tied it at 9:23 when Backes beat Khudobin high for his 150th career goal with St. Louis but just his second since Dec. 14. "Its nice to be back on the scoreboard but were more interested in winning," Backes said. "Tonight was a game where they brought a hard-skating, tough-checking game, and we didnt have a ton of answers for it." NOTES: St. Louis finished the month 9-5-0. ... The Blues entered with 37 points on the road, the second-best total in the league, but have not won in Raleigh since 2009. ... Carolina G Cam Ward, out all of January with an unspecified lower-body injury, made a conditioning start Friday night with Charlotte of the AHL. New Balance Sale Australia .com) - The Carolina Hurricanes placed defenseman John-Michael Liles on injured reserve Tuesday. New Balance Shoes Australia . It has been eleven years, eight months, and 261 days since I played my last CFL game. http://www.wholesalenewbalanceaustralia.com/ . The team announced the moves before Sundays game against Houston. Shaw was 1-4 with a 4.26 ERA in 43 games for the Diamondbacks. Bergesen was claimed off waivers from Baltimore on Friday. Wholesale New Balance Shoes Australia . Not only that, when Julian de Guzman first stepped on the pitch for Deportivo de la Coruna he became the very first Canadian to play in Spains top tier. New Balance Clearance Outlet .com) - John Wall supplied 24 points and 11 assists in leading the Washington Wizards to a 102-91 win over the New York Knicks on Christmas Day.ISTANBUL - Canada is out of medal contention at the FIBA womens world basketball championship after dropping a 63-52 decision to Australia in the quarter-finals Friday.Miranda Ayim of London, Ont., led Canada with 11 points and seven rebounds while Edmontons Katherine Plouffe added 10 points and Kia Nurse of Hamilton scored eight. Erin Phillips scored 16 points to lead the Australian attack.The Canadians were coming off an impressive 91-71 qualification win over the Czech Republic, but couldnt match that output against a deep Australian side.We werent the same team at the offensive end tonight, Canadian head coach Lisa Thomaidis said on a conference call. Certainly Australia had something to do with that. It wasnt just all of us not showing up by any means. They were tough defensively.Australia (4-0) led 26-20 before scoring 10 of the final 14 points of the half, capped by another three by Leilani Mitchell just before the buzzer to take a 36-24 advantage into the break.Canada (2-3) got within 10 in the third quarter on consecutive three-pointers, but could get no closer as Phillips took over.ddddddddddddWe did a good job on them defensively for the most part, Thomaidis said. They werent shooting the ball terribly well and they gave us chances. The door was still open for us to come out and take it from them. But again, just a hard time putting the ball in the hoop and scoring any easy buckets.We didnt have any easy ones tonight. Spain advanced to the semifinals with a 71-55 win over China. In the late quarter-finals, host Turkey faces Serbia and the United States meets France.While they wont be contending for a medal, the Canadians did meet their goal of finishing in the top eight. Canada will play in classification games on Saturday and Sunday and can still finish as high as fifth overall. Our world ranking is No. 9 right now, Thomaidis said. So anything we can do to help raise our world ranking and garner more respect and notoriety on the world scene, thats always going to be great for Canada and this team moving forward. Canada finished 12th at the last world championship in 2010.— With files from The Associated Press. ' ' '