Hurricanes 2, Senators 1

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RALEIGH, N.C. - Joe Corvo scored with 2:40 left to help Peter Laviolette become the winningest American-born coach in NHL history and lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night.

Fellow defenceman Dennis Seidenberg also scored and Corvo added an assist for the Hurricanes, who trailed 1-0 after two periods but scored twice in the final nine minutes.

Mike Fisher scored his second goal in three games for the Senators.

Michael Leighton made 22 saves in his second straight start on home ice to help Laviolette surpass former Tampa Bay coach John Tortorella with his 240th career victory.

Corvo took advantage of an Ottawa turnover in its own zone to score the go-ahead goal. Sergei Samsonov kept the puck in the zone, Tim Gleason's slap shot was stopped by Martin Gerber and the puck made its way to Corvo, who beat the Senators goalie with a snap shot from the right circle.

That came about six minutes after Seidenberg started Carolina's comeback with a power-play goal with 8:54 left. He beat Gerber with a slap shot from just inside the blue line for the first power-play goal allowed by the Senators in four games.

Jarkko Ruutu appeared to have tied it with 1:49 left when his slap shot from the blue line got past Leighton, but the goal was waved off because he was offside.

Gerber — who set the Hurricanes' single-season records with 38 victories and a .707 winning percentage in 2005-06, his only season with them — stopped 28 shots in his return to the Senators lineup after missing six games with a leg injury.

Fisher put Ottawa up 1-0 in the final moments of the second period after Gleason couldn't make a play on the puck near the blue line. Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson gathered the puck, skated down the right side and wristed a shot into Leighton's pads, and Fisher zipped in from the left side to poke the rebound past the goalie's right pad with 1:52 left.

But for the first 38 minutes, this was a defence-dominated grind with few quality scoring chances.

Early on, nobody came closer to scoring than Jason Spezza, who thought he had a goal midway through the first when he backhanded a rebound behind Leighton — and even raised his stick to celebrate. But play continued, and the no-goal call eventually stood because officials couldn't determine during the video review whether the puck crossed the stripe.

Notes: Ottawa LW Dany Heatley's five-game goal-scoring streak ended. He also had scored in his last five games against the Hurricanes ... Carolina placed C Brandon Sutter (concussion) on the injured list before the game and replaced him with C Michael Ryan from their AHL affiliate in Albany ... The Senators next see action Tuesday in Montreal against the Canadiens (7 p.m., TSN, Team 1200). Two days later, the New York Islanders visit Scotiabank Place (7:30 p.m., Rogers Sportsnet, Team 1200).