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RALEIGH -- Petr Sykora scored two goals, Sidney Crosby had four assists and the Pittsburgh Penguins routed Carolina 5-2 Thursday night to spoil the start of Paul Maurice's second stint coaching the slumping Hurricanes.

Pascal Dupuis scored an early goal and NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin added two assists, even as his lead over Crosby dwindled to two.

Pittsburgh led 3-0 less than 2 minutes into the second period and never let Carolina get closer than two goals after that. The Penguins scored five goals on their first 13 shots, including first-period goals by Sykora and Dupuis roughly 1½ minutes apart.

Crosby assisted on both, giving him 39 points this season and 16 career points in 12 meetings with the Hurricanes. Sykora has 32 points in 36 games against Carolina.

Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko also scored, and Dany Sabourin made 34 saves in helping the Penguins snap a four-game losing streak in Raleigh and improve to 8-3-2 on the road.

Tuomo Ruutu and Matt Cullen scored for the Hurricanes.

Carolina fired coach Peter Laviolette a day earlier and replaced him with Maurice, who coached them to a franchise-best 268 wins from 1995 until he was fired in December 2003.

But a new coach didn't provide any quick fixes for a team that fell behind 1-0 for the 11th consecutive game and went on to lose its fifth in six games, its eighth in 12 and its fourth straight at home. They allowed five goals at home for the fourth time in less than a month.

Not even the earlier-than-expected return of right wing Justin Williams -- out all season with a torn Achilles' tendon -- could jump-start a power play that went scoreless for the seventh straight game.

While Carolina held one of the league's most potent offenses to 22 shots, Michael Leighton stopped just 17 of them. And some quick scoring by Sykora and Dupuis sucked the energy out of the arena.

First, Sykora took a feed in the slot from Crosby on a power play and wristed a rising shot past Leighton. Then, less than 2 minutes later, Pittsburgh made it 2-0 after former Penguin Josef Melichar couldn't handle a puck in the Hurricanes' zone.

Crosby snatched it and skated toward the net before dishing to Dupuis, who beat the besieged Carolina goalie with a wrist shot that gave the Penguins a two-goal lead for good.

Williams was activated by Carolina before the game.

The Hurricanes placed defenseman Dennis Seidenberg on injured reserve with a leg injury.

Pittsburgh 2 3 0 -- 5

Carolina 0 2 0 -- 2

First period--1, Pittsburgh, Sykora 6 (Crosby, Goligoski), 10:53 (pp). 2, Pittsburgh, Dupuis 3 (Crosby), 12:30.

Second period--3, Pittsburgh, Sykora 7 (Crosby, Malkin), 1:53 (pp). 4, Carolina, Ruutu 9 (Samsonov, Melichar), 2:12. 5, Pittsburgh, Satan 10 (Crosby, Letang), 6:51. 6, Carolina, Cullen 7 (Ra.Whitney, Brind'Amour), 15:54 (pp). 7, Pittsburgh, Fedotenko 5 (Malkin), 18:27.

Shots on goal--Pittsburgh 5-9-8--22. Carolina 11-11-14--36. Goalies--Pittsburgh, Sabourin. Carolina, Leighton.

A--14,559 (18,680). T--2:23.