The Carolina Hurricanes' power play is clicking and goals are coming in bunches. Wins are starting to pile up, too.
The Hurricanes look to win three in a row for the first time in nearly seven weeks Tuesday night when they visit the Philadelphia Flyers.
Andrej Nestrasil and Justin Faulk scored power-play goals and Carolina withstood a furious third-period rally from Arizona on Saturday to win 5-4 on Victor Rask's goal in overtime. The Hurricanes (12-14-4) have gone 7 for 17 with the extra skater in the last five games, winning four.
''The power play is what's changed things,'' coach Bill Peters said. ''Now those guys playing on the power play are starting to get some extra goals and points and it's spilled over into their 5-on-5 play and we're playing with a lead.''
Carolina also has 16 even-strength goals in the last five contests and five goals in each of the past four. It's the first time the franchise has scored at least five goals in four consecutive games since March 1987, when the club was in Hartford. It hasn't scored at least five in five straight since March 1986.
Jeff Skinner has six goals in the last five games while Faulk continues to be the driving force on the power play, tallying four scores with the extra skater in the last four. Faulk's 12 power-play goals lead the league and account for all of his scoring for Carolina, which hasn't won three in a row since Oct. 27-30.
''We're kind of starting to see the results," Faulk said. "If we put in the work and work hard every night, good things happen."
The Flyers (12-12-6) stopped all six of Dallas' power-play chances Friday, but the high-powered Stars found other ways to score and handed Philadelphia a 3-1 loss.
Shayne Gostisbehere scored his fifth goal as the Flyers wasted another strong performance by Michal Neuvirth, who stopped 41 of 43 shots a night after making 35 saves in a 4-2 win at St. Louis.
Coach Dave Hakstol had typically alternated between Neuvirth and Steve Mason, but he gave Neuvirth a start on back-to-back nights after Mason yielded three goals on 10 shots last Tuesday and was pulled early in the second period. Mason has two wins in his last eight starts and an .841 save percentage in his past two.
Neuvirth is 4-1-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average in his last six games, but Hakstol isn't ready to name him the No. 1 goaltender quite yet.
"(Neuvirth) has played extremely well for us," Hakstol said. "He played really well last night so he earned that start tonight. We'll look forward now to the next game and make a decision as we get toward game day. But nothing changes in terms of No. 1, No. 2 and that stuff. Mason is our guy still."
Neuvirth and Mason each made a start against the Hurricanes in November, as the Flyers won both by 3-2 scores in overtime. Jakub Voracek scored 37 seconds into overtime in the first meeting in Raleigh on Nov. 14, and Gostisbehere had the winner 24 seconds into the extra session at Philadelphia nine days later.
The Hurricanes had won eight of the previous nine matchups.
