WILMINGTON - At the risk that Cam Ward could get into their heads, the Bruins tonight will perform their own exploratory surgery on the talented Carolina goalie. For starters, they'll get in his face.
If that doesn't work, they'll take aim on some of the goalie's other body parts with their intimate, probing work around the net. We would divulge more saucy details here, but for the sake of a family readership, we can only tell you so much about how the Bruins intend to break the 1-1 series deadlock, and Ward's mesmerizing spell, when they meet the Hurricanes tonight in Raleigh, N.C., in Game 3 of their second-round playoff series.
Ward, the playoff MVP in 2006 when he backed the Canes to their only Stanley Cup, was back on cue in Game 2 Sunday night, snuffing out all 36 Boston shots en route to a 3-0 victory. He was at his best in the third period, especially on back-to-back turnbacks on Michael Ryder and Dennis Wideman, when the Bruins finally shook their two-period doldrums and played as if they were interested in advancing to the Eastern Conference finals.
"Great save, and he made them the whole game," said Ryder, noting how the 25-year-old Ward flashed his left pad and stopped the winger's point-blank attempt with about 6:30 remaining. "If I could have lifted it a little, I might have scored there. We were desperate in the third period, and we have to play the whole game that way."
Ward, who starred as a junior in the Western Hockey League, is pretty much the standard-cut big NHL butterfly goalie at 6 feet 1 inch, 200 pounds. In full pads and in full confidence, he can be among the toughest to beat, as he proved his rookie year, at age 22 and with only 28 games of regular-season experience before he went 15-8 on the way to the Cup.
"A wonderful kid with a great work ethic," said Boston winger Mark Recchi, who was Ward's teammate in that spectacular spring of 2006. "He's always been technically sound, and right now he's on a roll like he was [in '06].
"I'd say in the last 35 games or so he's found that consistent base that goalies look for, and people forget, I think, that he's only 25 years old. He's still growing up, as goalies go, still improving."
Milan Lucic played in the same Western Hockey League as Ward. But by the time Looch cracked the Vancouver Giants lineup, Ward had moved on from the Red Deer Rebels, not long after the Canes made him a first-round pick, No. 25 overall, in 2002.
"Not just him, but I missed a lot of the really good players in our league - Ward, [Dion] Phaneuf, [Ryan] Getzlaf, [Mike] Green - a whole bunch of them," said Lucic. "But guys were still talking about [Ward].
"He had great numbers, was a great performer, and to see him make the transition so quickly to the NHL, I don't think it surprised a lot of people. And to be honest, it kind of inspired me. Not just to see Ward make it, but guys like Phaneuf and Getzlaf, too."
Aaron Ward (no relation), the veteran Boston back liner, also suited up in the blood-red Canes sweater in 2006 and shared the Cup championship with Recchi and Ward. He knows the Canes goalie as a guy who likes to be aggressive, one who routinely will cheat out above the blue-shaded crease in hopes of minimizing a shooter's view of the net.
Long gone are the days when goalies roam more than, say, 3-5 feet from their goal line, but by Aaron Ward's view, his former backstop tends to grow bolder, and roam farther, as his confidence grows during a game. That extra bit of space between the goalie's backside and the back of the net could be something the Bruins try to exploit.
"He's quite a gifted goaltender if you let him see the puck," said Ward, adding that it would be necessary to, "A. Impede his progress and B. Impede his view."
In old-time hockey, before NHL goalies worked with the kind of rulebook protection today extended to NFL quarterbacks, Boston's strategy going into Game 3 would have been summed up in three words: Run. The. Goalie. Ward, whether nailed to his own crossbar or spotted somewhere in the mid-slot, in the old days would have been sandwiched early and often as the piece of deli meat between matching slices of Boston whole-wheat forwards.
These days, though, nuance and strategy have replaced those kind of knuckle-dragging practices.
Given today's softer, kinder, gentler ways, the Bruins, first and foremost, will try to land more shots on Ward, and then they'll try to be more aggressive (elbows up, please, gentlemen!) about collecting rebounds. Rather than follow up with shots straight on net, look for one of the Black-and-Gold forwards to try to dish left or right, in hopes that an aggressive Ward will have pulled away from the goal line and left some space vacant for an easy pot or two.
None of that strategy will mean much, though, if the Bruins don't shake the doldrums they displayed in Games 1 and 2. Carolina arrived as emotional, physical doormats in Game 1, following a torturous first-round series with the Devils, and they were easily rubbed out, even with the Bruins showing shinny-like intensity.
In Game 2, the Canes were far better, much tougher on the puck in all three zones, while the Bruins were still skating in recreational mode. Boston stepped it up for the third period, made Ward work for his stops (16 total), but by then he had a 2-0 lead and insurmountable confidence.
"It's a seven-game series," noted Ward, the Boston blue liner with his name on the Cup three times. "You are allowed to have a hiccup or two. And if you have four hiccups, you're out of the series."
Hiccups. Could call for a different remedy. For the moment, the Bruins have an operating room booked for 7:30 p.m.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at dupont@globe.com. 
