Toronto Maple Leafs 2, Carolina Hurricanes 1 FINAL OT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) _ After allowing 15 goals in their last three games, the Toronto Maple Leafs tightened up enough to get past the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Darcy Tucker scored 2:18 into overtime, keeping rookie Mikael Tellqvist unbeaten and lifting the Maple Leafs to a 2-1 victory.

Bryan McCabe scored a power-play goal, and Tellqvist made 34 saves for the Maple Leafs, who had lost two of their last three.

``The simple fact is we can play better,'' said Tucker, who scored his 18th goal of the season. ``We played pretty good on the offensive side of the puck, but we're not doing the little things that made us so successful earlier and gave us the team identity we had throughout November, December and early January.''

Tellqvist improved to 4-0-2 this season, with two of his wins coming against Carolina. The 24-year-old goalie was recalled Saturday from St. John's of the AHL because of Ed Belfour's back injury.

``It's always nice to be undefeated,'' Tellqvist said. ``I just try to come up here and work as hard as possible every time I get a chance to play. I'm the No. 3 guy in this rotation. I need to keep working so maybe one day I can be a No. 1.''

In overtime, Drake Berehowsky pushed the puck up the ice, then sent a pass to a cutting Tucker between the circles. Tucker was locked up with Erik Cole, but managed to flip the puck past Kevin Weekes as he fell into the goalie.

``I didn't even see it go into the net,'' Tucker said. ``We've been preaching that a lot the last few games, to try to get the puck to the net and go there and get some chances.''

Carolina had plenty of those, outshooting Toronto 35-22. But the Hurricanes went 0-for-6 on the power play and repeatedly came up empty against Tellqvist.

``We went out with a mission to try and control the puck and control the play,'' Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. ``We were just not able to be opportunistic on any of the chances we got.''

Sean Hill scored midway through the third period for the Hurricanes, and Weekes stopped 20 shots. Carolina lost for the sixth time in 10 games.

The teams split their previous meetings this season, with Toronto winning 2-1 on the road on Nov. 2, and Carolina winning 2-0 in Toronto on Jan. 27. Thursday's game was just as tight, with McCabe's first-period goal the only score in the first 40 minutes.

Carolina finally tied it on a miscue by the Maple Leafs in the third.

Hill held the puck on the left side, waiting until the last second before passing it to a cutting Pavel Brendl. Tomas Kaberle stretched out on the ice to stop the pass, but the puck bounced off Kaberle's stick and slipped past Tellqvist.

Hill was credited with the goal at 9:42, giving him 14 points in his last 17 games.

The Hurricanes started aggressively, swarming around the net and taking a 9-1 shot advantage in the first 7{ minutes. But, as has been the case all season, Carolina couldn't convert.

McCabe did. After Hill was whistled for slashing at 7:38, the defenseman took a pass from Joe Nieuwendyk and beat Weekes from the point 11 seconds into the man advantage.