Balanced Canes beat Maple Leafs 4-1

Eric Staal, Scott Walker, Eric Belanger and Justin Williams scored to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.

Ray Whitney had two assists for the defending Stanley Cup champion Hurricanes, who have won two straight following a three-game losing skid.

Bryan McCabe scored the lone goal for the Maple Leafs, who are missing four regular players because of injuries, including Darcy Tucker _ who entered tied for the most power-play goals in the NHL.

The injury woes got worse for Toronto when defenseman Ian White didn't return after hurting his shoulder along the boards in the second period.

Fans booed the Maple Leafs in the final minutes.

Belanger gave Toronto a 2-1 lead 2:51 into the second period on a power play, sending a screened shot from the blue line past Andre Raycroft.

Staal made it 3-1 with his 19th goal on a one-timer that beat Raycroft on the glove side at 18:17. Williams added an empty-net goal with 15.3 seconds left.

Carolina's Cam Ward made 29 saves for his second win in four career games against Toronto.

McCabe gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 15:24 of the first with a hard one-timer, but Walker tied it at one at 1:51 of the second by patting the puck out of the air and past Raycroft.

The Hurricanes beat former coach Paul Maurice, in his first year with Toronto.

Notes:@ Tucker has missed four of the past five games with a left foot injury. The Maple Leafs are also missing Kyle Wellwood (groin), Alex Ponikarovsky (shoulder) and Nik Antropov (sprained ankle). ... Maurice coached the Hurricanes franchise for more than eight seasons and ranks first in wins (268), games coached (674), playoff wins (17) and playoff games coached (35).