St. Louis Blues 0, Carolina Hurricanes 2 FINAL

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- New Carolina Hurricanes coach Peter Laviolette just wants an easy victory.

For now, he's settling for any wins he can get.

Kevin Weekes made 19 saves, and Danny Markov and Kevyn Adams scored first-period goals in the Carolina Hurricanes' 2-0 victory Tuesday night over the St. Louis Blues.

Weekes made 12 of his saves after the first period as Carolina held on for its fourth win in nine games since Laviolette took over for fired coach Paul Maurice.

"It's mind-boggling that we have to sweat that out 2-0 at the end, but at least we were sweating it out and it wasn't 0-2," Laviolette said. "We've still got a ways to go, we still have to get better at a lot of different things. When we do, i think we'll just keep improving."

Weekes' fifth shutout of the season helped the Hurricanes snap a three-game losing streak.

Markov gave the Hurricanes the lead 5:07 in with an assist from Adams, who stretched the advantage to 2-0 at 7:03 of the first by scoring a short-handed goal.

The teams went scoreless the rest of the way.

"I thought we had pretty good energy from the first shift," Adams said. "We were keyed up. You kind of have to have that mentality of desperation. ... We're at the point where we can't be letting points slide."

In the second period, St. Louis managed 10 shots but couldn't beat Weekes. Chris Osgood made 22 saves for St. Louis.

"I felt good," Osgood said. "They did a good job of driving the net and it gave me trouble. I thought they played well. They are a good defensive team that's been having trouble scoring."

St. Louis coach Joel Quenneville said his club was outmatched in this game.

"It looked like the strength on the puck and the energy levels were at two different levels, and they had a lot more of it," Quenneville said. "You could tell on the first goal, the puck's there, they beat us to the front of the net, it's in our net."

Blues forward Keith Tkachuk left the game toward the end of the second period because of a sore neck.