By The Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. – Matt Cullen beat Antero Niittymaki from the right side late in the third period Friday night and Eric Staal had a hat trick as the Carolina Hurricanes rallied again and beat the Philadelphia Flyers 8-6.

Carolina overcame a two-goal deficit for the third straight game to extend the best start in franchise history (7-2-1). Cory Stillman added a third-period goal and assisted on Staal’s first-period tally.

The team’s previous best start after 10 games was a 6-3-1 opening in 1984 as the Hartford Whalers.

Jonathan Sim scored two goals for the Flyers, who were coming off an overtime win against Florida on Thursday.

Both teams were 4-0-1 in their previous five games, with Carolina leading the Southeast Division. They each put on an offensive show in a game that featured 16 power-play opportunities.

Ultimately, Cullen, Staal and Stillman kept the Hurricanes unbeaten in five home games, setting a record for consecutive home wins since relocating from Hartford.

Lightning 4, Capitals 2

TAMPA, Fla. – Vinny Prospal scored twice, including a tiebreaking power-play goal with 5:07 left in the third period, as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals 4-2 on Friday night.

Prospal, positioned in the slot, redirected Vincent Lecavalier’s shot from the top of the right circle to put the Lightning up 3-2. Prospal added an empty goal during the final minute to complete the scoring.

Tampa Bay also got goals from Dan Boyle and Martin St. Louis. The Lightning have won consecutive games for the first time this season and snapped a three-game home losing streak which included a shootout defeat. Rookie Alexander Ovechkin had his third two-goal game for Washington. The Capitals were looking to win two in a row for the initial time this year.

Devils 3, Sabres 2

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Sergei Brylin scored the winning goal on the power play with 5:23 remaining and New Jersey backup Scott Clemmensen made 25 saves Friday night to lift the Devils to a 3-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

Scott Gomez and Eric Rasmussen also scored for the Devils, who snapped a two-game losing streak.

Brylin tipped Bryan Rafalski’s shot past Ryan Miller as the Devils salvaged the win after blowing a two-goal lead in the third period. Daniel Briere and Chris Drury scored for Buffalo in a span of 1:17 to wipe out the Devils’ lead. Clemmensen was scheduled to get his first start of the season even before Martin Brodeur injured his right knee Wednesday in the Devils’ 6-3 loss to Tampa Bay.

Blue Jackets 2, Wild 1

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Trevor Letowski scored in the fifth sudden-death shootout round – the NHL’s longest tiebreaker this season – to give Martin Prusek and the Columbus Blue Jackets a 2-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Friday night.

Adam Foote scored in the final minute of regulation to force overtime – his second pivotal, late goal in as many games.

Columbus had four quality shots in the overtime, extending their franchise record to 53 shots for the game. The Blue Jackets also put a record 24 shots on goal in the third period. In the three-skater shootout, Todd White gave the Wild the upper hand only to have Mark Hartigan, called up from Syracuse of the AHL last week, score on the Blue Jackets’ final chance.

Oilers 5, Stars 3

DALLAS – Radek Dvorak scored the tiebreaking goal at 8:12 of the third period and the Edmonton Oilers snapped a seven-game losing streak with a 5-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.

Dallas had capitalized on a two-man advantage when Jason Arnott scored his third goal of the season at 5:14 of the third period to tie it at 3.

But Dvorak notched his second of the season from the slot off a feed from Ethan Moreau, paving the way for the Oilers’ first win since Oct. 10. Raffi Torres added a power-play goal at 16:36, his seventh of the season, to stretch Edmonton’s lead to 5-3.

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