Hurricanes 4, Senators 3 .

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes spotted the Ottawa Senators a 2-0 lead, but rallied behind Chad Chad LaRose's two goals and 36 saves from Cam Ward for a 4-3 win on Tuesday night.

The Hurricanes stayed three points behind eighth-place Buffalo in the Eastern Conference standings. They have nine games left, including six in a 10-day stretch starting Friday at Tampa Bay.

Carolina then scored twice in 25 seconds late in the first period to wipe out an early Ottawa 2-0 lead, and LaRose gave the Hurricanes the lead for good with a score at 18:17 of the second.

Cory Stillman added a third-period goal off a nifty give-and-go with Eric Staal, and the Hurricanes won their seventh in a row against the Senators at the RBC Center.

Ottawa outshot Carolina 39-24, but couldn't rattle Ward.

The Hurricanes scored four times on their first 19 shots against Curtis McElhinney despite continued struggles on the power play. Carolina was scoreless on three man-advantages Tuesday, dropping to four for its last 77 on the power play.

Erik Karlsson, Colin Greening and Marek Svatos scored for Ottawa. Greening gave the Senators the lead after Ward denied Jason Spezza on a breakaway. Svatos corralled his own shot off Ward and scored with 6:20 left in the opening period, his first goal since joining the Senators at the trade deadline.

Ruutu and LaRose then scored 25 seconds apart to tie it. Ruutu redirected Jussi Jokinen's dribbler at 14:07. LaRose then took a pass from Joni Pitkanen and fired the puck past McElhinney, who made 20 saves.

"I think Mac probably wanted that one back, and to give up another one like that was tough," Ottawa's Ryan Shannon said. "That was a big momentum swing, that second goal."

NOTES: Staal left in the third period, but Maurice said his exit was "precautionary." Maurice expects his captain to play against the Lightning ... Carolina improved to 23-1 when leading after two periods, while Ottawa fell to 1-23-4 when trailing after two ... Pitkanen, who had a first-period assist, has 25 points in his last 28 games (11 goals, 14 assists) ... The two-goal first period marked the first time the Senators had scored more than one goal at the RBC Center since their last win in Raleigh, 6-0 on Dec. 12, 2007 ... Ottawa concludes its two-game road trip on Thursday against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden in New York (7 p.m., Sportsnet Sens, Team 1200).