RALEIGH, N.C. _ Remember when the Penguins couldn't win a game on the road?
Way back in the second week of January?
If so, forget it.
They overcame a sluggish start and went on to rout Carolina, 7-1, at PNC Arena Friday.
It was the second consecutive away victory for the Penguins, who had lost five of their previous six on the road, and their third overall.
They are 29-11-5 and climbed to within one point of second-place Columbus in the Metropolitan Division.
The only major negative for the Penguins was that fourth-line winger Scott Wilson was injured 5{ minutes into the third period, when Carolina defenseman Matt Tennyson misfired on an attempt to hit Penguins center Eric Fehr and ended up knocking Wilson's legs out from under him.
There was no immediate word on the nature or severity of Wilson's injury, which appeared to be to his left arm or wrist.
The Hurricanes, which had been 14-1-1 in their previous 16 home games, dominated the early minutes of play, recording the first six shots of the game.
The Penguins rebounded from their slow start, however, and got the only goal of the period when defenseman Trevor Daley gloved down a clearing attempt by Hurricanes center Teuvo Teravainen at the right point, then carried it to the right side of the slot before driving a slap shot past goalie Cam Ward for his fourth of the season.
Patric Hornqvist appeared to double the Penguins' lead at 15:40, as a Jake Guentzel shot from inside the right circle hit him in the midsection and into the net behind Ward.
The apparent goal was immediate waved off, however, and after a lengthy video review, the officials determined that the left goalpost had been completely dislodged before the puck entered the net.
The Penguins rendered that whole issue moot during the second period, however, running off four unanswered goals to blow the game open.
Carl Hagelin made it 2-0 at 6:59, when he rapped the rebound of a Cameron Gaunce shot past Ward for his sixth of the season.
Gaunce's assist was his second in two games since being recalled from the Penguins' farm team in Wilkes-Barre.
Any lingering suspense about the outcome was vaporized in an 18-second span midway through the period, when Conor Sheary and Chris Kunitz got goals to put the Penguins up by four.
Sheary's shot from between the hash marks went between Ward's legs and trickled across the goal line for his 14th at 12:28, while Kunitz drove to the net to poke a Fehr rebound between Ward's legs for his fifth at 12:46.
Phil Kessel, goal-less in his previous five games, pushed their advantage to five during a power play at 17:29.
He took a cross-ice feed from Evgeni Malkin and beat Ward from the bottom of the left circle for his 14th.
Malkin nudged a puck off Ward's skate and into the net at 6:37, but the Hurricanes countered by spoiling Matt Murray's shutout bid 32 seconds later, as Viktor Stalberg beat him on a short-handed breakaway.
Less than two minutes later, however, Sheary took a backhand pass from Sidney Crosby and scored from near the bottom of the right circle to put the Penguins up, 7-1.
