Uniondale, NY (My Sportsbook) - Eric Staal scored twice, leading the Carolina Hurricanes in a 6-2 shellacking of the lowly New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

Ray Whitney, Dennis Seidenberg and Anton Babchuk each registered a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, who have won two of their last three games. Cam Ward picked up the win with a 22-save effort.

"We played a little more desperate," Ward said. "We played with an edge."

Mark Streit and Jon Sim scored for the Islanders, who have dropped seven of eight and are dead last in the NHL with just 40 points on the season. Joey MacDonald was beaten six times on 30 shots in defeat.

"We just weren't sharp," said Islanders head coach Scott Gordon. "We had stretches where it looked like we were going to turn it around, but I think mentally we weren't very sharp."

Whitney staked Carolina to a 1-0 lead, redirecting a Babchuk point shot 5:23 into the contest.

After the Islanders tied the game with 8:12 remaining in the first period on a power-play goal by Streit, Matt Cullen and Staal struck twice in a 54-second span, creating a two-goal bulge for the visitors.

Alone in front of the net, Cullen picked up a pass from Whitney, pulled the puck to the backhand and lifted it over the sprawled netminder with 3:45 to play in the opening frame. Staal then snapped a wrister from the middle of the left circle that squeezed through MacDonald and dribbled across the goal line.

The No. 2 overall pick in 2003, Staal pumped in his team-leading 26th goal of the season, beating MacDonald high on the short side with 4:11 remaining in the second period.

Seidenberg turned on the red light in the dying seconds of the middle stanza for a 5-1 Hurricanes lead.

Babchuk and Sim traded tallies 31 seconds apart around the midway point of the third period.

Game Notes

Sergei Samsonov recorded two assists in the win for Carolina...Before the game, the Hurricanes placed forward Justin Williams on injured reserve with a broken bone in his hand...New York announced Thursday that forward Richard Park will be sidelined four weeks because of broken ribs...Isles forward Trent Hunter returned to the lineup after a four-game absence with a hip flexor.