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Staal, LaRose help Hurricanes crush Senators

Nov 18, 2010 - 8:21 AM Raleigh, NC (Sports Network) - Eric Staal recorded his 11th career hat trick and dished out two assists, as the Carolina Hurricanes dominated the Ottawa Senators, 7-1, at RBC Center.

Chad LaRose added two goals and two assists for the Hurricanes, who snapped a two-game skid. Tim Gleason had a goal and an assist for Carolina, which got 23 saves from Cam Ward.

Prior to the game, the Hurricanes acquired defenseman Ian White and troubled forward Brett Sutter from the Calgary Flames in exchange for defenseman Anton Babchuk and forward Tom Kostopoulos. Neither White nor Sutter played in Wednesday's contest.

Daniel Alfredsson scored the lone goal for the Senators, who have lost three of four since a four-game winning streak. Starter Brian Elliott allowed four goals on 16 shots in less than one period of play before being replaced by Pascal Leclaire, who allowed three goals the rest of the way.

The Senators were in Ottawa earlier Wednesday to attend the memorial service for Daron Richardson, daughter of Senators assistant coach Luke Richardson. Daron passed away at the age of 14 on Saturday, succumbing to injuries suffered during a suicide attempt the day before.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the organization and the Richardson family," Staal said. "It's obviously an awful situation. We weren't happy with our last two games, we came out ready to play and they looked like a team with a lot of their mind."

Gleason put Carolina on the board at the 4:25 mark of the first period. LaRose led a 2-on-1 rush down the right side of the ice and slid a cross-ice pass to Gleason, whose wrister snuck past Elliott.

Staal followed with a pair of power-play goals. At the 10:41 mark, Jussi Jokinen gathered the puck at the top of the right circle before sliding a pass in front to Staal, who jammed the disc past Elliott.

With 3:55 to go, Staal found the back of the net again. Jokinen's shot from the right circle set up a rebound in front for Staal, who chipped the puck past Elliott for a 3-0 lead.

LaRose lit the lamp just 41 seconds later to give Carolina a 4-0 margin. Gleason fired a shot on net from the left circle and though Elliott stopped the shot, he left a juicy rebound in front for LaRose, who put the puck into the back of the net.

Leclaire was a perfect 6-for-6 in a calm second period, but just 1:26 into the third, LaRose jammed home another rebound to make it 5-0.

Alfredsson's one-timer from the left point while on the power play put Ottawa on the board at the 9:31 mark, but Staal completed his hat trick at 13:44 and Tuomo Ruutu capped the scoring a little more than two minutes later.

Game Notes

For Carolina, it was the largest margin of victory at home over Ottawa since the Senators arrived in the NHL for the 1992-93 season...It was the most goals in one home game for the Whalers/Hurricanes franchise against the Sens since Hartford posted a 7-3 win on April 3, 1993...The Senators posted a 3-2 regulation win over a visiting Hurricanes club back on October 14...Carolina has taken the last six meetings in Raleigh...The Hurricanes also recalled defenseman Brett Carson from Charlotte (AHL)...Staal now has 202 career goals.