<div id="subtitle">Eric Staal nearly does it all, scoring 3 goals to lead Hurricanes past the Coyotes 5-2</div><div><p>Eric Staal scored three goals in less than 24 minutes to lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the Phoenix Coyotes, 5-2 on Friday night. Busting out of an eight-game scoring drought in a big way, Staal completed his fifth career hat trick in the final minute of the second period to lead the Hurricanes to their season-high third straight victory.</p><p>Ray Whitney scored two late goals, including one into an empty net. Joni Pitkanen had three assists and Cam Ward stopped 26 shots for Carolina.</p><p>Shane Doan and Kevin Porter scored and Ilja Bryzgalov made 28 saves for the streaky Coyotes, who have lost four straight since winning three in a row.</p><p>But the story of the night was Staal. The franchise's highest-paid player hadn't scored since Nov. 4 — his worst stretch he went nine games without scoring in 2006-07.</p><p>He scored two game-tying goals, then polished off the hat trick by giving the Hurricanes their first lead with 45.1 seconds before the break.</p><p>Scott Walker threw the puck toward the net — and behind Bryzgalov — and Staal backhanded it past the goalie to become the first Carolina player with a three-goal game since Chad LaRose did it in a 6-2 victory over Tampa Bay on April 2.</p><p>That goal came about 11 minutes after Staal tied it at 2-2 by driving to the net after his shot went wide off the back boards, Pitkanen tracked it down and backhanded it to Staal and he tipped it between Bryzgalov's legs. His first goal made it 1-1 with 4:44 left in the first when he chipped in the rebound of Sergei Samsonov's backhand.</p><p>Shane Doan answered that less than 2 minutes later, giving Phoenix a 2-1 lead by picking off Anton Babchuk's clearing attempt off the boards, skating in on Ward and snapping the puck past him for his team-best 11th goal.</p><p>Porter put the Coyotes up 1-0 on a power play midway through the first when he parked to the right of Ward and tipped a pass from Keith Yandle past the goalie for his fourth goal of the season and second in three games.</p><p>That came during a stretch of sluggish play for the Hurricanes, who put only one shot on net in a 10-minute span and allowed the opening goal for the fifth straight game yet improved to 3-2 in that span.</p><p>Notes:@ Carolina is 7-3-1 when its opponent scores first. ... Before the game, the Coyotes placed LW Daniel Winnik on injured reserve and recalled RW Enver Lisin from San Antonio to replace him. ... Both Yandle and Doan have points in three straight games, and Doan has goals in two straight and three of five. ... Phoenix put 15 shots on goal in the first period.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=37463019&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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