MORRISVILLE, N.C. — It had to end sometime, and it ended the way it always does, with bad goals and weird penalties and the deep echo of bad memories — in this case, the increasingly dark shadow of Madison Square Garden.
The Carolina Hurricanes went five and a half weeks without losing, won 11 in a row and the crazy thing about it (other than that they failed to gain any significant ground on the Boston Bruins) is they still haven’t scratched their presumed ceiling.
For six weeks, the Hurricanes kept piling up wins and points without their No. 1 goaltender, without a reliable power play, with key players sporadically injured and without Max Pacioretty, whose long-awaited debut appears all but imminent.
