NHL: Staal's 5 points help Carolina top Caps

WASHINGTON — Eric Staal had two goals and three assists to help the Carolina Hurricanes end a three-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory over the Washington Capitals on Monday night.

Jussi Jokinen added a goal and two assists. Tuomo Ruutu also had a goal and an assist while Matt Cullen added two assists as Carolina stopped Washington's three-game winning streak and got just its second road victory this season.

The Capitals traded captain Chris Clark and defenseman Milan Jurcina to Columbus for Jason Chimera earlier in the day and looked flat early, as the league's top-scoring team managed just four shots on goal in the first period.

That helped Carolina take charge early as the Hurricanes scored on three of their first nine shots. They beat goalie Jose Theodore three times in a stretch of 6 minutes, 46 seconds on shots from near the goal.

Ruutu scored first, putting in the rebound of Staal's shot at 7:44 of the first period. Staal made it 2-0 at 10:14 and Jokinen got the third goal at 14:30.

But the Capitals began to rally after that. Mike Green and Eric Fehr scored in the second period, and Alex Ovechkin cut it to 4-3 on a power-play goal early in the third period.

Alexander Semin, who agreed to terms on a one-year, $6 million contract extension on Saturday, and Green assisted on that goal.

But Staal then got an assist on Sergei Samsonov's goal with 10 minutes left and added a late empty-net goal.

NOTES: Nicklas Backstrom drew a four-minute high-sticking penalty in the first period. He had only 12 penalty minutes all season before that. ... Washington had won five straight home games before this loss. ... Carolina is 2-13-4 on the road. ... Cullen now has four assists in the last two games.