Carolina Hurricanes 4, Toronto Maple Leafs 5 FINAL OT

TORONTO (AP) - The Toronto Maple Leafs have learned that no lead is safe in the new NHL.

Ken Klee scored a power-play goal 4:44 into overtime and the Maple Leafs won their fourth straight game with a 5-4 victory over Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday night.

Toronto goalie Ed Belfour allowed Carolina to tie it by giving up two third-period goals. The Maple Leafs blew third-period leads in their first three games of the season - all losses.

``You can never sit on a lead like in the past,'' Belfour said. ``There are a lot more power plays. Anything can happen.''

A number of new rules has increased offense in the NHL.

Klee loves it.

``Things are changing, but it's exciting,'' Klee said. ``When they changed the rules, they were looking for ways to allow teams to come back who were down in games.''

Oleg Tverdovsky, Ron Brind'Amour, Erik Cole and Cory Stillman scored for the Hurricanes, who tied it after trailing 4-2 in the third.

Eric Lindros scored his sixth goal for the Maple Leafs, undefeated since going winless in their first three games.

After Carolina rookie Eric Staal received a penalty for high-sticking Jason Allison, Klee put a slap shot past goalie Cam Ward.

``That's a tough call,'' Staal said. ``I didn't feel much coming around the corner but that's the call he made.''

Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour got a breakaway in overtime but fanned on his shot.

``It just seemed like something was going to go wrong tonight and it did,'' Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. ``We fell down on the first goal.''

Darcy Tucker gave Toronto a 1-0 lead at 8:43 of the first after a Carolina defenseman fell near the boards, allowing Tucker to steal the puck and rip a slap shot past Ward.

Toronto's Alexander Steen tipped in Bryan McCabe's shot from the point, giving Toronto a 2-0 lead less than 3 minutes later.

Staal made a nifty backhanded pass to Tverdovsky, whose one-timer from in front of the net cut it to 2-1 at 12:45 of the first.

Brind'Amour tied it on the power play at 8:08 of the second, but Matt Stajan gave Toronto the lead again after Ward inadvertently passed the puck to Stajan. Ward tried to clear the puck by passing it to a defenseman, but Stajan intercepted and scored his unassisted goal at 16:48.

Lindros' slap shot from the circle gave Toronto a 4-2 lead at 4:59 of the third.

Cole cut it to 4-3 less than 3 minute after Lindros scored, and Stillman tied it with a long wrist shot with 2:28 left.

``The positive is, I guess, that we battled back, but it's a loss,'' Laviolette said. ``It's frustrating. We need to win games.''

Notes: Injured Maple Leafs captain Mats Sundin said he's confident he'll make a full recovery from his eye injury. Sundin's lower orbital bone was broken when he was hit in the face by a puck two weeks ago. He said his blurry vision is getting better although he hasn't ruled out surgery. ``It's all positive at this point,'' Sundin said. ``There's no problems with my vision. It's going to come back. It's just a matter of time.''