RALEIGH, N.C. -- Through a lot of inactivity, in part because of a lingering concussion, Carolina Hurricanes goalie Eddie Lack never lost faith.

As it turned out his teammates had his back as well.

Lack recorded his first victory since October by stopping 34 shots as the Hurricanes defeated the Ottawa Senators 3-0 on Friday night at PNC Arena.

"When there's a couple of minutes left, you starting thinking about it," Lack said of the possibility of notching a shutout. "I felt like we were controlling it from the start. A good night for us."

Several individual scoring droughts were snapped as Carolina won for the first time in six games (1-4-1).

Jordan Staal, Elias Lindholm and Viktor Stalberg scored for the Hurricanes, who finished with exactly three goals in a game for the first time in 2017. Phil Di Giuseppe picked up two assists.

Lack, who made his sixth start of the season, improved to 2-3-1. He has nine career shutouts.

"We've got to get him going," Carolina coach Bill Peters said of the decision to start Lack instead of Cam Ward, who played in 48 of the team's first 56 games.

Lack made 18 of his saves in the second period.

"He didn't get tested a whole lot early," Peters said. "There's a zero on the board (in the third period). ... He's a good teammate and you want to keep that zero there."

The Hurricanes had a different personnel makeup in front of Lack because it was the first game since defenseman Ron Hainsey was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hainsey had played in every Carolina game this season.

Defenseman Ryan Murphy moved into the lineup for only his second NHL game since early January as Carolina went with revamped defensive pairings.

Lack said he felt comfortable. He had gone more than a year --since January 2016 -- without registering a shutout.

"I saw it well today," he said of the puck.

The Senators, who would have pulled into the top spot in the Atlantic Division with a victory, were shut out for the third time this month.

"They came out really hard. We were expecting that," Senators coach Guy Boucher said. "There's no reason why we shouldn't be ready for their surge in the first period. It just was not there."

The Hurricanes weren't called for a penalty until more than 44 minutes into the game.

Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson made 41 saves.

The Hurricanes led 3-0 after two periods, and that was more goals than they had scored in any of their previous five games. The offensive snags were a large reason why Carolina slipped to the bottom of the Metropolitan Division standings.

"It's nice to get a win," Staal said. "It's always a lot more fun."

Carolina opened the scoring 79 seconds into the game on Staal's wrap-around goal. It was his first goal in seven games.

"The first opening you take it and go," Staal said. "You want to play with speed. We've been squeezing the stick the last few games."

Lindholm snapped a 13-game streak without a goal with his score with 4:44 left in the second period.

Stalberg halted his 11-game goal-less streak by scoring with 42 seconds to play in the period. That was accompanied by an assist from Victor Rask, who had gone 14 games without a point.

"(Play like this), you don't deserve to win," Boucher said. "And your opponent played great and we were awful and the mix is the result. We just had an off day. We'll be better next game."

NOTES: Ottawa won the first two meetings against the Hurricanes this season by 2-1 scores, so there were three goals scored in each meeting. ... The Hurricanes were charted for 19 first-period shots, matching their season high for any period. ... With Carolina going with G Eddie Lack, it meant that G Cam Ward will have to wait to appear in his 600th career game. He is at 599. ... The Senators were without two of their top scorers for the second game in a row with RW Mark Stone (neck) and C Mike Hoffman (groin) sitting out. ... The Senators play the third game of a four-game road swing Sunday at Florida. ... The Hurricanes wrap up a five-game homestand Sunday against Calgary.