’Canes’ Whitney storms Pens

Evgeni Malkin scored in his fifth straight game in the 4-2 loss.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Ray Whitney had a goal and two assists and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 Thursday night to vault back into first place in the Southeast Division.

Erik Cole and Eric Staal snapped long scoring droughts with power-play goals and Ryan Bayda added his first goal for the depleted Hurricanes, who started without three key defensemen and then lost captain and leading scorer Rod Brind’Amour in the game’s opening moments with an injury to his left knee.

Whitney, who entered with no goals in his previous 10 games, broke a 2-all tie with 16:15 left when he took a feed from Staal while slipping into the slot and beat Dany Sabourin with a low wrist shot to his glove side.

Cam Ward stopped 20 shots for Carolina, which held an overwhelming 46-22 shots advantage and won its second straight.

Evgeni Malkin scored for the fifth straight game, defenseman Brooks Orpik added his first goal of the season and Sabourin made 42 saves for Atlantic Division-leading Pittsburgh, which dropped its second in a row and fell to 6-4-2 in their 12 games since star center Sidney Crosby sprained his ankle.

Malkin continued his torrid play in Crosby’s absence — he has 10 goals and 13 assists since replacing Crosby on Pittsburgh’s No. 1 line. His unassisted power-play goal in the second — which clipped off the stick of Carolina’s Frantisek Kaberle — put the Penguins up 2-1 and moved him into second in the league with 75 points, three behind Washington’s Alexander Ovechkin.

The combination of Malkin’s recent scoring punch and the holes in Carolina’s defense seemed too much to overcome for a Hurricanes team that entered having allowed 186 goals — the second-worst total in the league. Three defensemen were scratched — Tim Gleason and newly acquired Joe Corvo because of the flu and Bret Hedican with a lower-body injury.

Then, coach Peter Laviolette had to fill another hole in his lineup when Brind’Amour left with a knee injury. He collided with Pittsburgh’s Nathan Smith and Georges Laraque near the boards at the center line just 1 1/2 minutes into the game and did not return.

Cole put Carolina up 1-0 about 3 minutes in with a power-play goal but Orpik tied it at the 7-minute mark with a blast from the left point. Then after Malkin gave Pittsburgh its only lead of the night, Staal tied it at 2-all, wristing the rebound of Whitney’s shot past Sabourin’s glove.