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. Fake Soccer Jerseys .B. -- Canadas Rachel Homan opened the Ford Womens World Curling Championship with a 7-5 win over Russia on Saturday. Soccer Jerseys From China . - Maxence Parrot of Bromont, Que. https://www.cheapsoccerjerseysjustwholesale.com/. The senior threw for 319 yards and no interceptions in his final college game, leading No. Soccer Jerseys Online . The Calgary Stampeders running back received the West Division nomination for the CFLs top individual award Thursday in voting by the Football Reporters of Canada and leagues eight head coaches. Soccer Jerseys For Sale . Helwani said that Weidman has been dealing with recurring swelling and pain in his knees related to torn meniscus he suffered as a teenager and the problems came to a head last week when he suffered prolonged swelling and pain in his left knee, resulting in the decision to undergo an arthroscopic scope procedure to clean up the tear in both knees.The Toronto Argonauts have a lot to look forward to in 2014. Long gone are the glory moments of the 100th Grey Cup, back to reality, which is an almost total rebuilding effort on defence in effort to get back to the 102nd Grey Cup come November 30th. First and foremost, this year has such special optimism because they get their quarterback back. With Anthony Calvillo out of the picture, Ricky Ray is the best in the league. He did have issues staying healthy last year but in the time he played he was remarkable. Completing 77 per cent of your passes and finishing with a 21:2 touchdown to interception ratio is an accomplishment that other quarterbacks envy and respect. His quarterback rating was 126.4. If Ray can stay healthy for the year, the Argonauts will always be in position to win it all. Health really is the only issue as age, now creeping into the mid 30s, is still not a significant detriment. Other positions? Absolutely. If you are a running back or defensive back, when you lose that athletic burst or reactive ability, you lose a lot. But quarterbacks, more than any other position, are cerebral more than physical and as long as the first dominates the second, you can continue to play at a very high level. The next aspect of success could be a re-designed defence. Losing Chris Jones, now the head coach with the Edmonton Eskimos, was intense as Jones transferred his intensity successfully to the players he directed. But when a coaching void is opened it is usually filled quickly, and the combination of Tim Burke and Casey Creehan will develop their own style based on experience, not experiment. Toronto will be a much more "upfield" team, depending on a front four to pressure and a back eight to react. As a coordinator, Burke has always been successful, and as a linebacker coach so has Creehan. Then after Mike OShea left to become the head coach in Winnipeg, the void was filled by Jim Daley, who knows this league better than any. Losing two assistants to head coaching jobs says a lot about how good the defensive staff was, but it could be even better potentially with the positions filled in the present. Running back will be a battle. With Chad Kackert retired, it appears to be a three-man competition between Steve Slaton, Curtis Steel, and Anthony Coombs. Can Cooombs be an 18 game starter? Very unlikely, but possible.dddddddddddd Nothing would be better than to see the University of Manitoba star be the next Jon Cornish. If he does, then everything falls into place on offence and with ratio flexibility. Overall, from last year there are major priorities for improvement. Toronto ended the season with the best red zone offence and the best red zone defence. 69 per cent of the time the Argos produced touchdowns over field goals on offence. And only 46 per cent of the time Toronto allowed touchdowns, forcing opponents into field goals. Inside the 20, the Argos were the best in CFL football. Outside the 20s: a priority to improve. On average, teams produced 389 yards of offence, 289 of which was through the air. Those totals were both eighth in the league. Toronto finished dead last in rushing yards as well, with only 85 produced per game. And that eighth-place reality is for the second year in a row. But you can rationalize that with a +18 takeaway/giveaway number and arguing what happens between the 20s is not as significant as what happens from the 20 in. But all that yardage against takes time away from Ray and the offence; that has to be improved. So looking into the future one year at a time, Toronto will have a good team. Looking into the future more than one year, Toronto needs a new home for the team. BMO Field is an excellent choice but the financing is still floating in space. Because the stadium was built with tax payer money, there is no reason not to include all. If it was privately funded, than those who paid for it can use it as they see fit. But it was paid by the public so should be open to public use, and that includes the Toronto Argonauts. To me, expansion will create more revenue for all and the location and design can be adapted for all. Where there is a will, there is a way. Both Hamilton and Montreal will be better and are better right now than at this time last year. Ottawa is a complete unknown but is not to be looked at as a guarantee win day. Toronto is somewhere in the middle, catching up perhaps to Hamilton and Montreal but way ahead of Ottawa. But with Ray at quarterback the catch up is more of a threat than a desire. Two years removed from the Grey Cup means a new team in Toronto. ' ' '