RALEIGH — The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins twice in October, with the season in its infancy.

The Bruins were still mentally celebrating their run to the 2011 Stanley Cup.

Their focus was missing and frustration mounting, and they had 17 penalties - and displayed some ugliness - in the second loss to the Canes, Oct. 18 in Boston.

But that was then.

The Bruins came in to the RBC Center on Saturday playing as well as any team in the NHL, came in talking about redemption.

And lost to the Canes again.

Trailing 2-1 in the third period, the Hurricanes scored three times to top the Bruins 4-2 and clinch the season series.

Defenseman Justin Faulk and Jay Harrison scored on blasts from the points and Eric Staal added an empty-netter to extend his point streak to five games.

Cam Ward had 33 saves in net as the Canes won their second straight and had the sellout crowd of 18,680 rumbling.

"It does feel good," Staal said. "Obviously they've got their game going since we played them the last two times. We got down one there but we stuck with our game. It was great to battle back and a good win."

The Hurricanes (16-23-7) did not have a power play in a home game for the first time in franchise history.

Their four goals - Pat Dwyer scored in the second period for a 1-1 tie - came at even strength against a team that had outscored opponents 105-50 five-on-five this season.

Boston (28-12-1) also had outscored teams 61-24 in the third period this season and Milan Lucic's goal early in the third pushed the Bruins ahead 2-1.

But Faulk, who has a heavy shot, bombed one from the right point with 6:02 left in regulation to tie it.

Then, with 1:30 remaining, Harrison ripped one from the left point for his seventh goal of the season and fourth in the past four games.

On both shots, the Canes had Jiri Tlusty battling in front of the net both times, blocking the view of goalie Tim Thomas.

"It was just putting the puck on the net," Harrison said. "We had great traffic. We had them in their zone and were moving them around a little bit. Jiri Tlusty was a huge part. He had his back end in Thomas' face."

After a scoreless first, the Bruins edged ahead 1-0 when Patrice Bergeron knocked in a rebound in the second period.

But the Canes tied it as Brandon Sutter swiped the puck from Gregory Campbell in the Bruins zone and fired a shot from the high slot that hit a stick, nicked Dwyer's left skate and got past Thomas. Ward was steady and had several timely saves, including two against Daniel Paille just after Lucic's goal.

He also made a sharp stop on a Jordan Caron shot before Faulk tied the score.

But the Canes helped their goalie and got to loose pucks in front of the crease and in the defensive zone, and blocked 16 shots.

"It's an important concept in our game to box guys out low and pick up the low three players," Harrison said.

"As a defenseman, you want to make sure you're taking away second and third opportunities and having good body position on their forwards."

The Bruins, starting a four-game road trip, incurred their only penalty in the final minute when Lucic was called for slashing along with the Canes' Bryan Allen.

The victory was Kirk Muller's first over the Stanley Cup champions since taking over as Canes coach. "They're a good team and you have to bring your 'A' game in order to beat them," Muller said.

The Canes left immediately after the game for Washington. They'll be on the ice at the Verizon Center for a 5 p.m. game today with the Capitals.

Alexander: 919-829-8945