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RALEIGH -- Sergei Samsonov had two goals and an assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes past the Atlanta Thrashers, 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Joe Corvo also scored after Samsonov snapped out of a two-goals-in-10-games slump for the Hurricanes. They have won five of eight while picking up points in nine of their 13 games under new coach Paul Maurice.

Ilya Kovalchuk scored to end the longest scoring drought of his career, but couldn't prevent the Thrashers from losing their fourth straight. The NHL's second-worst team is 5-14-3 since capping a franchise-record-tying five-game winning streak with a mid-November home-and-home sweep of the Hurricanes.

Cam Ward made 20 saves -- and stopped the final 18 shots he faced -- behind a defense that had its forechecking unit clicking and didn't allow many quality scoring chances. Atlanta's Kari Lehtonen turned aside 25 pucks in his third straight loss.

Samsonov set up the sequence that produced his go-ahead goal late in the second period by taking the puck off Atlanta defenseman Zach Bogosian's stick in the corner. The Hurricanes kept it in the zone, Tuomo Ruutu sent a wrist shot off Lehtonen's pads and Samsonov swooped across to backhand the rebound past the sprawling goalie to make it 2-1.

Corvo then made it a two-goal game when he scored on a power play midway through the third, skating down the right side and blasting the puck past Lehtonen.

Earlier, Samsonov tied it with 24.8 seconds left in the first period when he beat Lehtonen with a falling-down backhand from point-blank range that sneaked under the crossbar.

That came after Kovalchuk -- who hadn't scored in nine games -- put the Thrashers up 1-0 midway through the first on the second shot they put on Ward. With Ruutu 39 seconds into a charging minor, Bryan Little dropped the puck to Kovalchuk, and he skated into the left circle before whipping a hard wrist shot past Ward for his 12th goal but first since Dec. 12 against Boston.

Atlanta 1 0 0 -- 1

Carolina 1 1 1 -- 3

First Period--1, Atlanta, Kovalchuk 12 (Little, White), 10:23 (pp). 2, Carolina, Samsonov 6 (Staal, Babchuk), 19:35. Penalties--Valabik, Atl (holding), 4:49 Ruutu, Car (charging), 9:44.

Second Period--3, Carolina, Samsonov 7 (Ruutu), 16:49. Penalties--Boulton, Atl (roughing), 8:20 Pitkanen, Car (elbowing), 12:57.

Third Period--4, Carolina, Corvo 6 (Samsonov), 7:14 (pp). Penalties--Samsonov, Car (tripping), 2:04 Havelid, Atl (hooking), 5:53 Crabb, Atl (boarding), 17:46 Ruutu, Car (slashing), 19:21.

Shots on Goal--Atlanta 5-8-8--21. Carolina 10-12-6--28. Power-play opportunities--Atlanta 1 of 4. Carolina 1 of 4.

Goalies--Atlanta, Lehtonen 3-8-2 (28 shots-25 saves). Carolina, Ward 13-9-3 (21-20).

A--18,137 (18,680). T--2:19.

Referees--Steve Kozari, Brad Meier. Linesmen--Jean Morin, Jonny Murray.