Staal, Ward lead Hurricanes past San Jose 5-2

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - It took Cam Ward six years before he played his first game in San Jose. He made the most of it.

Eric Staal scored a short-handed goal and Ward made 41 saves to help the Carolina Hurricanes get their first win on American soil, beating the San Jose Sharks 5-2 Tuesday night.

"Yeah, my first game in this building and I was excited for the opportunity," Ward said. "The guys really had it going from the drop. Our penalty-kill was great. Any time you can kill off three penalties in the first 10 minutes and add a goal to boot, you're doing pretty good."

Erik Cole, Patrick Dwyer, Chad LaRose and Joni Pitkanen also scored for the Hurricanes, who ended a two-game slide and won for the first time since sweeping the Minnesota Wild in Helsinki, Finland.

"We did things a lot better than our last time out," Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice said. "We kept the puck moving forward and when we did have a breakdown we got great goaltending."

Patrick Marleau scored twice for the Sharks, who have yet to win a home game. Antti Niemi made 26 stops, but has allowed nine goals over his past two games.