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Final Score: Ottawa 1 - Carolina 4

Raleigh, NC (Sports Network) - Manny Legace made 25 saves, helping the red- hot Carolina Hurricanes stretch their season-high win streak to seven games in a 4-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Rod Brind'Amour, Tom Kostopoulos, Brandon Sutter and Chad LaRose had the goals for the Hurricanes, who are creeping back into Eastern Conference playoff contention. Entering Thursday's schedule of NHL games, Carolina was eight points back of Boston for the eighth postseason spot.

The Hurricanes also won their first game since shaking up their roster with a flurry of moves prior to Wednesday's trade deadline. Carolina traded away defensemen Joe Corvo, Aaron Ward and Andrew Alberts and forwards Scott Walker and Stephane Yelle on Wednesday, which was on top of a deal that sent center Matt Cullen to Ottawa before the Olympic break.

Cullen, playing against his former team for the first time since that trade, scored the Senators' lone goal.

Pascal Leclaire gave up two goals on five shots in the first 6:23 of the game before being pulled. Brian Elliott made 14 saves the rest of the way for Ottawa, which has lost two in a row.

Carolina jumped on Ottawa at 5:18, when Kostopoulous stuffed home the puck from in close. Brind'Amour followed with a goal only 65 seconds later, leading to Leclaire being pulled.

"We needed a shake up, but we needed him to be better as well," said Ottawa head coach Cory Clouston. "Obviously it's a concern, we are also trying to win games. We felt that at that particular time our guys needed a kick in the pants and a little bit of a shake up and trying to get the momentum back on our side."

Elliott entered and held Carolina scoreless the rest of the period, but the Hurricanes made it a three-goal contest late in the second. Eric Staal corralled a bouncing puck in the slot and tried a shot, which was unsuccessful. The puck remained loose in front of the crease, where LaRose deftly swiped it into the net with 4:10 remaining.

Cullen managed to get his backhand attempt through traffic and past a screened Legace at the 11:55 mark of the third.

"That is a very, very fast team," Carolina head coach Paul Maurice said of the Senators. "They've got speed throughout their whole lineup and especially in the third period when they stopped worrying about turnovers or dumping the puck, they become so much more dangerous."

However, Legace held firm and Sutter's empty-netter with under two minutes left sealed the victory.