Penguins down Hurricanes in Maurice's return

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Petr Sykora scored two goals to lead the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 5-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes whose head coach Paul Maurice was starting his second stint at the helm.

Sidney Crosby dished out four assists to extend his points streak to five games as the Penguins handed struggling Carolina its fifth loss in six games.

Maurice, fired by the Hurricanes in 2003, replaced coach Peter Laviolette, who was axed on Wednesday after three and a half seasons with the team which included a Stanley Cup title in 2006.

"We clearly have some work to do," Maurice told reporters. "We need to see some consistency in terms of what you see on the ice.

"At the same time there is good will, good fight on this team."

The Penguins rebounded from their 3-2 shootout loss to the New York Rangers by scoring three unanswered goals to start the game, two from Sykora and one by Pascal Dupuis.

Crosby had a hand in every Pittsburgh score except one and now trails team mate Evgeni Malkin by two for the NHL points lead.

"We wanted to bounce back. We knew we had to show some character here today," Crosby said. "We did a great job and came up with a big win."

The surging Penguins improved to 10-2-2 in their last 14 games.

Tuomo Ruutu and Matt Cullen scored for Carolina during an explosive second period that featured five goals with Miroslav Satan and Ruslan Fedotenko adding scores for Pittsburgh.

The Penguins outshot the Hurricanes 36-22 to put pressure on Carolina goalie Michael Leighton, who made the start for the injured Cam Ward, out with a groin ailment.

Penguins goalie Dany Sabourin recorded 34 saves and improved to 3-1-2 as a starter since taking over from the injured Marc-Andre Fleury.

(Reporting by Jahmal Corner; Editing by Ed Osmond)