RALEIGH — Hurricanes star center Eric Staal had a hat trick, but it almost wasn't enough.

Carolina held on for a 4-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks after three quick penalties put the Hurricanes down two men for an extended period in the closing minutes of the game.

Corvo, whose roughing penalty was the first of those penalties at the 16:59 mark in the third period, scored an empty netter with 4.7 seconds left.

Staff photo by Chris Seward

RALEIGH -- The Anaheim Ducks scored three third-period goals in taking a 4-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes Sunday night at the RBC Center.

Teemu Selanne's power-play goal at 7:16 of the third gave the Ducks (14-8-3) a 2-1 lead. The goal by Selanne came on a redirection of a Chris Pronger blast just after the Canes killed off 38 seconds of a two-man advantage by Anaheim.

ANAHEIM --The puck was sitting an inch or so from the goal line for what, to the Hurricanes, must have seemed like an eternity.

With less than 11 minutes to play against the Anaheim Ducks on  Sunday, the Canes led 2-1. There was a flurry of activity around Carolina goalie Michael Leighton, and the puck suddenly came free and dropped near the goal line. For a second or two, it sat there, with Ducks fans at the Honda Center in a frenzy and perhaps the game in the balance.

But Leighton alertly pounced on the puck. In his second start of the season, he would have 32 saves as the Canes picked up a hard-earned two points for the 3-1 victory and eased a little of the pain of the 4-3 overtime loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Friday.

"It was not a pretty win," said the Canes' Eric Staal, whose empty-net goal with 38 seconds left finished it off. "Obviously, goal-tending was huge for us. A goalie can win a game for you."