Hurricanes 4, Lightning 2: Captain Eric Staal and All-Star defenseman Justin Faulk each recorded a goal and an assist as host Carolina won its third in a row while halting Tampa Bay's three-game winning streak.

Nathan Gerbe and Jiri Tlusty also scored as the Hurricanes improved to 7-2-1 in January. Jordan Staal collected a pair of assists and Anton Khudobin turned aside 28 shots in winning his sixth consecutive start.

Cedric Paquette and Brian Boyle tallied for the Lightning, who absorbed only their fourth loss in 14 games (10-4-0). Ben Bishop made 18 saves in suffering his first career defeat (5-1-0) against Carolina.

Eric Staal opened the scoring only 22 seconds into the contest, sliding a backhand pass that clipped the stick of Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman and sailed into the net. Gerbe doubled the lead at 6:05 before Paquette cut the deficit in half with 5:55 remaining in the period, when the rebound of his shot appeared to carom in off the skate of Carolina blue-liner Brett Bellemore.

Faulk made it a two-goal advantage at 8:27 of the second, beating a screened Bishop with a long wrist shot during a power play, but Boyle countered on a short-handed breakaway just over 5 1/2 minutes later as he tucked a backhander between the pads of Khudobin. That was as close as the Lightning would get as Tlusty finished off a 2-on-1 rush with Faulk at 7:53 of the third.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Paquette netted his first goal since Nov. 15, ending a 29-game drought. ... Eric Staal continued his resurgence with his ninth goal in the last 12 games. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson was back in the lineup after an injury forced him to miss the All-Star Game and registered two shots while winning 12-of-20 faceoffs.