NHL Vrbata scores three goals to lift Carolina past Pens

Pittsburgh has lost two straight.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- Radim Vrbata's second career three-goal game lifted the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
Marty Murray added a second-period goal for the Hurricanes, who controlled play in the final two periods. Kevin Weekes made 22 saves for Carolina, which outshot the Penguins 38-25.
Brian Holzinger, Patrick Boileau and Konstantin Koltsov scored for the Penguins, who have lost two straight.
The game was a matchup of struggling clubs in the 15-team Eastern Conference, with Carolina standing in 13th and Pittsburgh 14th. Each team had just two wins in its last 10 games and one in its last five.
But the Hurricanes won for the second time in three games on the strength of three second-period goals by Vrbata and Murray.
Coming back
Trailing 1-0 after the first, Carolina tied it on a 5-on-3 power play 56 seconds into the period. Sebastien Caron stopped Jeff O'Neill's shot from the point, but Vrbata corralled a loose puck on the left side and scored. The goal came after Marc Bergevin was whistled for using a broken stick.
The Hurricanes pushed ahead when Murray scored his second of the season. Charging in on the right side, he faked a shot to draw Caron out, then skated behind the net and scored from the left side at 7:10.
Vrbata gave the Hurricanes a two-goal lead 41/2 minutes later, taking advantage of another broken stick by the Penguins. This time, Drake Berehowsky's stick broke as he tried to pass the puck, leaving it loose deep in the Penguins' zone. Vrbata charged in and beat Caron from just outside the crease for the 3-1 lead at 11:36.
Though the Penguins cut the lead to 3-2 on Boileau's goal late in the period, the Hurricanes outshot the Penguins 17-4.
Vrbata got the hat trick less than four minutes into the third, taking a pass from Erik Cole on the boards and beating Caron from between the circles at 16:20 for a 4-2 lead.
Koltsov scored at 18:07 to cut the margin to one, but the Penguins couldn't tie it.
Notes
Dick Tarnstrom extended his scoring streak to five games with an assist on Holzinger's goal. ... Pittsburgh ranks last in the NHL on the power play, scoring 11 goals in 108 attempts coming in. ... Carolina is 3-3-4 against Atlantic Division teams this season. ... Coming in, the Hurricanes had won 54.3 percent of their faceoffs this season, tied for third-best in the league.