Niklas Backstrom stopped all seven of the shots he faced in one period of work Thursday night. Backstrom had to play in the third period of Minnesota's 3-1 win over Carolina because of Josh Harding's lower-body injury. "Sitting for a long time on the bench, it's tough to be comfortable out there, but the guys helped me a lot," said Backstrom, who admitted that he's still not quite 100 percent from his knee injury. If Harding is out for any stretch of time then Backstrom will get a chance to reclaim his number one job, which appeared to be in jeopardy due to Harding's very strong play during his absence.