Senators 3 - 6 Hurricanes
Final
  for this game

Malhotra, Hurricanes surge past Senators

Jan 26, 2014 - 6:48 AM Raleigh, NC (SportsNetwork.com) - Manny Malhotra had two goals and an assist in the Carolina Hurricanes' 6-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

Nathan Gerbe added a goal and two assists for the Hurricanes, who have won three in a row. Tuomo Ruutu, Eric Staal and Riley Nash also lit the lamp.

"We made a few mistakes and kind of blamed it on a few brain cramps with the afternoon game," Hurricanes head coach Kirk Muller said. "We came back in the third, just calmed down and started all over again."

Anton Khudobin stopped 23-of-26 shots for the victors.

Kyle Turris had two goals for the Senators, who have lost two straight. Mika Zibanejad also lit the lamp.

"You can't play catch-up hockey all the time and expect to have any chance of being successful consistently," Ottawa head coach Paul MacLean said.

Robin Lehner turned aside 17-of-22 shots before being benched after two periods. Craig Anderson made nine saves in relief.

Saturday's game was originally scheduled for Friday, but was pushed back a day to accommodate the Hurricanes. Carolina was originally slated to play Tuesday in Philadelphia, but that tilt was postponed until the following day due to weather. The 'Canes then visited Buffalo on Thursday and had Friday's test moved back because they couldn't play on three consecutive days.

Gerbe got Carolina's offense going at the 10:30 mark of the first period.

Jordan Staal appeared to give the Hurricanes a 2-0 lead with 54.8 seconds left in the opening frame. After a review, it was determined that the puck hit off the post and never went in.

The scoring picked up dramatically in the middle stanza, with a total of seven goals being scored.

Eric Staal scored on a breakaway at 6:05 to officially make it a two-goal game.

Malhotra lit the lamp just 32 seconds later when he batted in Gerbe's pass.

Carolina went ahead 4-0 on Nash's shot from the right circle at the 13:23 mark.

Turris got Ottawa on the board at 13:58. Eric Gryba's shot from the right point resulted in a rebound for Clarke MacArthur, who slid a pass across the crease to Turris for an easy goal.

Turris added a short-handed goal at 17:45, cutting the gap to 4-2.

Ruutu responded with a power-play goal from the right circle with 33 seconds to go. The Senators, however, scored just 10 seconds later when Zibanejad put home a rebound.

Malhotra's empty-net goal at 18:19 of the third period accounted for the final margin.

Game Notes

The Hurricanes went 1-for-4 on the power play, while the Senators went 0-for-2 ... Drayson Bowman, Andrej Sekera and Alexander Semin each had two assists for Carolina ... MacArthur and Gryba had two assists apiece for Ottawa.






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