by Tom Reed, THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH , The Columbus Dispatch

Ward suffered a deep laceration to his left leg in the first period of the Blue Jackets' 3-2 win and was taken to Riverside Methodist Hospital. He received stitches and was kept overnight for observation.

The skate blade of Rick Nash sliced Ward's leg as the Blue Jackets captain was carrying the puck across the top of the crease at 7:35 of first period. Hurricanes medical staff helped Ward to the locker room, a trail of blood left on the ice.

"It's a significant injury and all I mean by that is I don't have any timeline, but there was a fair amount of blood on the ice," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "He's a critical piece. That's tough to take, but it's where we're at."

Ward, a candidate for the Canadian Olympic team, led the Hurricanes to a 2006 Stanley Cup title and helped them reach the Eastern Conference final a season ago.

But the goaltender and the club have struggled this season. The Hurricanes are winless in the past 12 games.

Ward is one of the goaltenders who doesn't wear knee protectors under his padding, Blue Jackets goaltender Steve Mason said.

"We have the option to wear them, and he chooses not to," Mason said. "You hope everything is OK and it's not too serious, but there was a lot of blood. That's a pretty scary situation and it could happen to anybody, but that's why I wear the knee pads, and (Mathieu Garon) wears the knee pads."

\ Filatov rewarded

Coach Ken Hitchcock was pleased Nikita Filatov finally got rewarded for his improved play. The rookie winger tied the score at 1 early in the third period, converting a pass from Derek Dorsett.

It was Filatov's second goal of the season and his first since Oct. 5.

"He needs (validation)," Hitchcock said. "Goal-scorers take scoring goals for granted. He battled and created a spot to do that in."

\ Big break

The Blue Jackets got themselves into penalty trouble late in the first period, going two men down. They still had to kill 1 minute, 39 seconds of a 5-on-3 penalty to start the second period but had the opportunity to plot strategy at the intermission.

Assistant coach Gord Murphy huddled with the six penalty killers and discussed how the Hurricanes might attack. The Jackets successfully killed both penalties.

\ Slap shots

Defenseman Kris Russell missed the game because of illness. ... Mason improved to 14-1-2 against the Eastern Conference. He also collected his second assist of the season on Jared Boll's third-period goal.

treed@dispatch.com

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