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Staal nets two as Hurricanes throttle Islanders

Feb 20, 2009 - 4:36 AM UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Eric Staal scored a pair of goals to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 6-2 win over the lowly New York Islanders on Thursday.

Dennis Seidenberg, Ray Whitney and Anton Babchuk each collected a goal and an assist and Matt Cullen also tallied for Carolina, which won its fourth straight road game.

Sergei Samsonov had a pair of assists as the Hurricanes captured a much needed win after losing three of four. The win gives Carolina, which sits in ninth place in the Eastern Conference, 63 points as it chases a number of teams for playoff positioning.

"We wanted to jump on them early, since they played last night," Staal said. "I thought we responded well throughout the whole game. If we play the type of game that we did tonight, and also the way that we played against Buffalo, we will get our fair share of wins."

Cam Ward, who had surrendered four goals in three of his last four starts, was not tested often as Carolina controlled play for much of the contest.

Mark Streit and Jon Sim scored for the Islanders, who have lost seven of eight (1-6-1) and both meetings with the Hurricanes this season.

The Islanders were coming off a 3-1 loss Wednesday against the New York Rangers and Carolina coach Paul Maurice wanted his team to take advantage.

"When you get a team that played an emotional game the night before, and you get them to a 3-1 score, it certainly makes it harder for them to bounce back," Maurice said. "When we did fail to hold them, our goaltender made a pretty good save. Our back pressure was good. I felt we skated pretty well for a team that's played a lot of hockey lately."

In the previous matchup between the two teams, New York peppered Ward with 60 shots in a 4-3 loss. The Islanders did not have nearly the pressure in this one as Ward made 22 saves to keep them reeling.

"Our guys were ready from the drop of the puck and we played well for 60 minutes," Ward said. "We're playing a little more desperate and with an edge. Getting that first goal really kind of set the tone."

Whitney put Carolina ahead 5:23 into the first period before Streit knotted the score, 1-1, with 8:12 to go off assists from Blake Comeau and rookie Josh Bailey.

But the Hurricanes took over late in the session on goals by Cullen and Staal in the final four minutes of the first to take a 3-1 lead into intermission.

"We had chances offensively," Islanders coach Scott Gordon said. "There were times we should have gotten it deeper, but we didn't. We didn't manage the puck very well. We were sloppy in that area. Some of our decisions were poor."

Staal netted his team-leading 26th goal of the season with 4:11 remaining in the second and Seidenberg tallied with 16 ticks left in the frame to give Carolina a four-goal bulge.

Joey MacDonald stopped 24 shots for New York.

"We haven't had too many games like this," Islanders right wing Kyle Okposo said. "They are going to happen at times throughout the season. We just have to rebound against New Jersey. We have to come prepared better than we did tonight. It doesn't matter that it's back-to-back games."