Jordan Staal had two goals and an assist and Sebastian Aho added a goal and two assists as the visiting Carolina Hurricanes snapped a two-game losing streak with a 5-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night.
Max McCormick and Nino Niederreiter also scored goals and Andrei Svechnikov added three assists for the Hurricanes (32-10-7, 71 points) who remained two points ahead of second-place Florida — a 7-4 winner at Nashville — in the Central Division. Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 27 of 28 shots.
Jason Robertson extended his point streak to nine games, longest for any rookie in the NHL this season, with a goal for Dallas (21-16-12, 54 points) which remained two points behind the fourth-place Predators for the Central’s final playoff spot. Anton Khudobin finished with 25 saves in the loss.
Carolina, which improved to 11-3-2 in April with the victory, scored twice in the span of 61 seconds to build a 2-0 lead in the first period. Staal scored the first goal on the power play when Svechnikov’s shot caromed off the skate of Aho into the slot, where Staal fired a wrist shot past Khudobin.
Aho followed with his 21st goal of the season, blasting in a rebound of a Brett Pesce shot from the left circle.
The Hurricanes extended their lead to 3-0 early in the second period with another power-play goal by Staal. Aho set up the score when he blasted a one-timer from the high slot that sailed high off the glass behind the goal and then bounced back in front of the crease where Staal slammed in his 16th goal of the season.
Dallas cut it to 3-1 midway through the period when Robertson pounced on a bouncing puck to the left of the crease and fired a wrist shot inside the near post for his 15th goal of the season.
McCormick made it 4-1 at the 5:18 mark of the third period with his second goal in two games, taking a behind-the-net feed from Morgan Geekie and then cutting in front of the crease and beating Khudobin with a backhand shot.
Niederreiter finished the scoring with his 18th goal of the season little more than midway through the period, taking a pass from Staal in the slot and snapping a shot by Khudobin’s blocker side.
–Field Level Media