Arron Asham and Pascal Dupuis scored 87 seconds apart in the third period as the Pittsburgh Penguins extended the host Carolina Hurricanes' losing skid to a season-high six games with a 3-2 triumph on Saturday.

Craig Adams, who spent parts of seven seasons in Carolina, collected a goal and an assist and captain Sidney Crosby notched his 12th point in seven games. Pittsburgh, which won for the fourth time in five contests, moved past the idle Minnesota Wild for the most points in the NHL.

With the game tied at 1-1 at the 8:33 mark of the third period, Asham's slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle beat Brian Boucher cleanly for his second goal of the season.

Dupuis doubled the advantage in short order after he fended off rookie defenseman Justin Faulk at the front of the net and alertly tapped a loose puck past Boucher.

Defenseman Jamie McBain closed the deficit back to one at 12:29 with his second tally of both the game and season, but Carolina couldn't convert a pronounced 5-on-3 and net the equalizer against Brent Johnson. The Penguins' backup netminder turned aside 30 shots to snap a personal three-game losing skid.

Boucher stopped 37 shots but suffered his fourth loss in as many games for Carolina, which fell to 0-3-0 since Kirk Muller replaced the fired Paul Maurice as the team's coach.