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12/4/2008 3:32 AM

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Associated Press

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Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. - Peter Laviolette won more games than any American-born coach in NHL history. But he didn't win enough of them lately to keep his job with the Carolina Hurricanes, so they replaced him with their winningest coach - the same one Laviolette himself replaced five years earlier.

The Hurricanes fired Laviolette on Wednesday, brought back Paul Maurice to take over for him and moved Hall of Fame player and assistant general manager Ron Francis behind the bench as Maurice's associate coach.

"Paul's always on my mind. Everybody knows he's my good friend," Carolina general manager Jim Rutherford said. "Take friendship aside, I wouldn't do this if I didn't think him and Ron were the right two to try and make some changes."

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Laviolette led the team to its only Stanley Cup title in 2006, and last month, he became the NHL's winningest American-born coach. But the Hurricanes - the only team in the league's modern history to miss the playoffs two straight years after winning it all - lost four of five during the past 11/2 weeks.

"We have a team that right now that, in my opinion, is not playing with the kind of confidence it needs," Rutherford said. "We've lost that confidence."

The 41-year-old Maurice has a career record of 344-357-137 in 11 seasons with Carolina and Toronto. He led the franchise formerly known as the Hartford Whalers through its move to North Carolina in 1997 and coached the Hurricanes to their first Stanley Cup final in 2002 and won 268 games with the organization before his firing on Dec. 15, 2003.

Rutherford said he would re-evaluate the coaching situation after the season.

Laviolette, who coached the New York Islanders for two seasons, was 167-130-30 in his fifth season with Carolina.

Ottawa 5, Atlanta 1: Dany Heatley had a goal and two assists, and Ottawa got first-period goals from each member of the Pizza Line.

Heatley opened the scoring with his 13th goal 1:18 in, and set up goals by linemates Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson later in the period.

Minnesota 4, St. Louis 0: Niklas Backstrom made 22 saves for his third shutout of the season and the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 4-0 on Wednesday night.

Andrew Brunette and Marek Zidlicky scored power-play goals to help Minnesota take the Northwest Division lead with its third victory in four games.

Flyers Briere out a month: Philadelphia Flyers center Daniel Briere will be sidelined four to five weeks because of a severe groin strain.

Briere had already missed 15 games this season because of an abdominal injury and a groin pull. He has five goals and nine points in nine games.

Briere left the Flyers' victory Tuesday night over Tampa Bay after the second period.

©2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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