Hurricanes 4, Senators 0 .

OTTAWA - Cam Ward made 37 saves for his second shutout of the season and Zach Boychuk scored a pair of goals 3:48 apart in the first in the Carolina Hurricanes' 4-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.

Eric Cole and Patrick Dwyer also scored for Carolina, which has won two in a row and six of nine.

Brian Elliott stopped 27 shots for Ottawa, which saw a modest two-game wining streak end - its first consecutive victories since a season-high four-game run in early November.

The Senators were missing centre Jason Spezza, out indefinitely after injuring his right shoulder Sunday when he was checked from behind into the boards by Pittsburgh's Kris Letang.

Carolina was missing two players who were injured Tuesday night in a win in Toronto. Defenceman Joni Pitkanen was out with a lower-body injury and Jussi Jokinen did not play because of an upper-body injury.

Ward turned aside 10 shots in the first period, 12 in the second, and 15 in the third. It was his 14th career shutout, including another 37-save effort in a 3-0 victory in Boston on Nov. 26.

Dwyer picked up the first of his two points with an assist on Boychuk's first goal, which put Carolina up 1-0 midway through the first. Boychuk chased down Dwyer's pass behind the Ottawa net and tucked the puck past Elliott 9:24 in for his first goal in six games since he was recalled from Charlotte of the AHL on Dec. 17.

Boychuk made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 13:12. The 21-year-old centre took Tuomo Ruutu's back pass and beat Elliott with a wrist shot from the slot.

Cole increased the lead to 3-0 when he snapped a shot past Elliott for an unassisted goal 15:14 into the second. Dwyer added another unassisted goal 4:32 into the third.

NOTES: Boychuk was drafted 14th overall by the Hurricanes in 2008. He has five goals and seven assists in 39 regular-season games, including two goals and two assists in four games against Ottawa ... Defenceman Brian Lee was left out of the Senators' lineup ... The Senators next head to Columbus, Ohio, on Friday for a New Year's Eve matchup with the Blue Jackets (7 p.m., Sportsnet East, Team 1200), then return home to face the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday (7 p.m., CBC, Team 1200).