Penguins’ opener spoiled by ’Canes

Sidney Crosby was held to just one shot in 19:27 of ice time.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Eric Staal scored two first-period goals and the Carolina Hurricanes spoiled the Pittsburgh Penguins’ season opener with a 4-1 victory Friday night.

Cam Ward stopped 33 shots and took a shutout into the final minutes, Jeff Hamilton had a goal and two assists and Andrew Ladd also scored for the Hurricanes, who earned their first victory by regularly frustrating two of the Penguins’ young stars.

Mark Recchi scored for Pittsburgh, which saw goalie Marc-Andre Fleury peppered for two periods and star Sidney Crosby neutralized in the 20-year-old’s first game as Pittsburgh’s captain.

The reigning league MVP and youngest player to wear the “C” in NHL history was held to one shot in 19:27 of ice time after entering with an average of one point per game in eight meetings with the Hurricanes. Fleury allowed goals on two of the first eight shots he faced, finishing with 22 saves before he was benched during the second intermission.

Both Ward and Staal showed the form that made them the leaders of Carolina’s Cup run in 2006.

Ward flirted with a shutout before his third career regular-season shutout before Recchi scored on the power play with 3:23 to play. Still, through two games the 2006 Conn Smythe Trophy winner has stopped 70 of the 74 shots he has faced.

Staal, the Hurricanes’ leading scorer during their playoff march, registered the fifth multigoal game of his career and first since scoring twice against Tampa Bay last January.

He once again found a way to frustrate the Penguins, his younger brother Jordan’s team and one of four opponents against which he averages better than one point per game.

He scored twice about six minutes apart in the first period to give the Hurricanes a comfortable early lead. First, he charged down the right side and wristed home the long rebound of Tim Gleason’s slap shot past a sliding Fleury’s glove side.

Then, Staal made it 2-0 with his third goal of the season. He caught the puck out of mid-air, dropped it before backhanding it toward the net, and it clicked off the skate of Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik — a longtime Carolina nemesis — and slipped past Fleury.

Ladd pushed the lead to 3-0 late in the second period when the Hurricanes’ first-round draft pick in 2004 powered a rebound over Fleury’s shoulder from point-blank range. Hamilton made it a four-goal game when his slap shot from the right point beat Fleury gloveside for his first score with Carolina.