Rod Brind'Amour and Sergei Samsonov scored in the second period and Trevor Letowski added an insurance goal in the third to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 3-1 win over the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

Cam Ward made 34 saves for the Southeast Division-leading Hurricanes, who have won three of four.

Several Hurricanes and Rangers tussle in Tuesday's first period.
(Karl DeBlaker/Associated Press)

Brendan Shanahan scored for the Rangers, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 shots.

The first period featured 66 minutes in penalties.

Carolina's Scott Walker and New York's Sean Avery received roughing minors before the puck dropped.

The Rangers' Colton Orr and the Hurricanes' Wade Brookbank fought shortly thereafter.

The physical play boiled over when Walker drove New York's Scott Gomez into the boards a little over four minutes into the game.

Avery came after Walker, which started a melee that entangled all 10 players on the ice.

Carolina defenceman Tim Gleason was ejected because he was the third man in on the Avery-Walker scrum.

Avery received a 10-minute misconduct.

Later in the period, Brookbank and Orr dropped the gloves for a second time.

Rangers take early lead

Emotions cooled after the first period, benefitting Carolina.

The Rangers had taken advantage of the Hurricanes' league-worst penalty kill in the first, taking a 1-0 lead when Shanahan beat Ward with a slap shot at the 1:02 mark.

After New York missed on an odd-man opportunity in the second, Ray Whitney skated down the right side on a two-on-one, faked a shot and then got the puck across to Samsonov, who backhanded it past a sliding Lundqvist.

Following a turnover by New York's Martin Straka at the Carolina blue-line just over two minutes later, Brind'Amour went the other way on a two-on-one break.

He used Samsonov as a decoy before shifting the puck to his backhand to beat Lundqvist.

Letowski put the game out of reach early in the third period, finishing on the rush after a nice pass from Chad LaRose.