• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Staal, Walker power Hurricanes past Lightning

Oct 29, 2006 - 1:39 AM RALEIGH, North Carolina (Ticker) -- Eric Staal, Scott Walker and the Carolina Hurricanes unleashed a powerful storm of offense, causing heavy damage to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Staal and Walker each scored two goals and the Hurricanes exploded for a franchise-record three goals in 43 seconds of a 6-4 victory over the Lightning.

With Carolina trailing, 1-0, Staal tied the game with a power-play goal at 8:23 when his sharp-angle shot whistled off the post past Tampa Bay goaltender Marc Denis.

After Kevyn Adams gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead nine seconds later, Erik Cole upped the lead to 3-1 at 9:06 on a give-and-go with Ray Whitney.

"It's good to have a response like that after they scored the first goal," Cole said. "We got the crowd into the game. We made the point that this is going to be a tough place to play."

"I thought we did some really good things and we did some bad things," Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella said. "I really thought we stuck together after the storm that came our way. I thought our start was good, but then we blew up for a few minutes and good teams capitalize on momentums like that."

Denis, who only stopped 13-of-17 shots, was replaced by Johan Holmqvist after Cole's tally.

The Boston Bruins hold the NHL record for the fastest three goals. The Bruins scored three times in 20 seconds of an 8-3 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on February 25, 1971.

Walker's first goal was the game-winner, upping Carolina's lead to 5-3 at 17:34 of the second period. He streaked down the right side and beat Holmqvist with a shot from the faceoff circle to the blocker side.

"I was just fortunate," said Walker, who only had five goals in 33 games last season. "Those guys did all the work. It was kind of a lucky shot. It was one of those nights."

"I thought the key part of the game was their fifth goal," Tortorella said. "That really hurt us."

Vincent Lecavalier had a goal and an assist and Martin St. Louis scored for the Lightning, who had their three-game winning streak snapped.

St. Louis, which had a natural hat trick in a span of 6:17 of a 5-1 victory over Carolina on Thursday, has four goals in his last two games.

St. Louis, who has six goals this season, was not pleased with his club's effort.

"Hockey happens," he said. "Move on."