TORONTO - James Reimer is making it very difficult for the Toronto Maple Leafs to send him back to the American Hockey League.

The rookie goaltender stopped 27 shots -- and received plenty of help from his teammates -- to record his first career NHL shutout in a 3-0 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

It was just the ninth career NHL appearance for the 22-year-old, who appears to have elbowed Jonas Gustavsson out of a job for the time being. The Monster watched Thursday's game from the pressbox while J.S. Giguere backed up Reimer.

Coach Ron Wilson said before the game it was an easy decision to start Reimer because he's been solid every time he's played. It got even better against the Hurricanes.

He denied Chad LaRose on a breakaway in the second period and made 12 saves in the final 20 minutes as a desperate Carolina team tried to climb back into the game.

Clarke MacArthur, Darryl Boyce and Kris Versteeg scored for Toronto (21-25-5), which shut out a team for the first time this season.

Carolina saw its record fall to 25-21-6 -- leaving it one point behind eighth-place Atlanta in the Eastern Conference standings.

There were a couple occasions where Reimer's teammates bailed him out. The most notable effort came from checking-line forward Tim Brent, who blocked three shots during a spirited 5-on-3 penalty kill that lasted one minute 36 seconds in the second. It was a hooking penalty to Reimer that put the Leafs down two men.

During another penalty kill later in the frame, Luke Schenn swept the puck off the goal-line after Sergei Samsonov got a shot behind the Toronto goalie.

The team took a 2-0 lead to the dressing room after the second intermission.

MacArthur's 16th of the season -- one off his career high -- came on a long wrist shot that seemed to fool a screened Cam Ward. The Hurricanes goalie didn't have much chance when Boyce blocked a Joni Pitkanen clearing attempt along the boards and raced to the middle before beating him at 14:52.

Versteeg made it 3-0 at 6:25, just moments after Ward had made one of the best saves of the season. He dove across the net to take a certain goal away from Brent.

The loss was the second in a row for the Hurricanes coming out of the all-star break, leaving them stuck in ninth in the Eastern Conference. Carolina returns home to face the rival Thrashers on Saturday -- the first of many big games it can expect down the stretch.

"We are absolutely going to mount up as much pressure as we can for each game," said coach Paul Maurice. "That's the nature of this time of year."

Notes: Toronto has been shut out eight times this season ... Gustavsson has made one appearance since Jan. 7 ... Carolina's Jussi Jokinen sat out with a lower-body injury. The Hurricanes have just 25 man games lost to injury this season ... Tomas Kaberle has played 871 career games as a Leaf -- 669 more than Nikolai Kulemin, the next highest among current players ... Fergie Jenkins dropped the puck on the ceremonial faceoff ... Announced attendance was 19,220.