TORONTO -- Jordan Staal put a sudden end to a game that neither team seemed ready to win Thursday.

The Carolina Hurricanes center fired home a rebound at 2:54 of overtime for his 11th goal of the season and a 1-0 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

It's not like he has not done it before. The goal was his third in overtime this season.

"It was sloppy at times and we didn't execute as well as we would have liked but I thought we skated better in the third and found a way to build a game," Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said.

After an unproductive first two periods, the Hurricanes picked up their game in the third period, holding a 15-3 advantage in shots, but could not avoid overtime.

"In the third period we did a good job of playing in their end more and got back to playing the game we want to play," Staal said. "We created a lot of chances and a lot of shot and they did a good job of keeping us to the outside and not giving us second rebounds."

Defenseman Justin Faulk assisted on Staal's winner as the Hurricanes (21-19-8) rebounded from a 5-0 loss on Monday to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Carolina goaltender Eddie Lack stopped 32 shots to earn his first shutout of the season and the seventh of his career.

Toronto goaltender James Reimer made 40 saves.

"I felt that we played a good system game," Lack said. "With these two teams as well, I kind of feel like we cancel each other out sometimes. It was two good goaltenders. I felt like Reims played a really good game and it was going back and forth, and in the third I felt that we took over and then I felt like we deserved the two points."

It was the sixth loss in the past seven games (1-5-1) for the Maple Leafs (17-20-8), who defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on Tuesday.

"I thought they worked hard, and I thought we worked hard," Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock said. "I thought they were better in the first 10 minutes, I thought we were better in the next 30 minutes, I thought they were better in the third period. They skate better than we do up front, more guys that skate. I thought their kids were really good on the back. You've got to be excited if you're them. They've got four kids that look like they can play. I thought our goaltending was real good."

"I thought our whole team played really well tonight," Reimer said. "She was a muddy game, she was a grinder's game and they got the last rebound. It's unfortunate, you want to win those games but we played a solid game and we got a point. The last two games we've played real well and we've been rewarded for it so hopefully we just keep going."

The Hurricanes had the early advantage in the first period, taking the play to the Maple Leafs with Reimer rising to the occasion. Toronto came back to outshoot Carolina 12-10 in the period. Toronto had a 2-1 advantage in power plays.

"It was a little bit of a chippy game," Staal said. "There were lots of power plays both ways and it kind of slowed the game down a little bit. I thought in the third period we started rolling our lines and you could tell when we start rolling them over and getting to the speed in our game, not a lot of teams can play against us and we found a way in overtime."

The Maple Leafs carried the play in the first part of the second period.

The Hurricanes picked up their game in the second half of the period but failed to take advantage of a power play when Toronto center Nazem Kadri took a holding penalty at 13:54. The Maple Leafs came closest to scoring on the Hurricanes' power play when Lack made a glove save on right winger Michael Grabner's breakaway.

The Hurricanes were foiled on their second power play of the period when Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf took a delay-of-game penalty. The shots on goal were 13-13 in the period.

Hurricanes center Victor Rask hit a goal post on a third-period power play.

NOTES: Hurricanes G Cam Ward (concussion) was put on injured reserve Wednesday and is out indefinitely. G Eddie Lack will take over as Carolina's No. 1 goaltender. G Daniel Altshuller was recalled from Charlotte of the American Hockey League. ... Former Maple Leafs greats Dave Keon, Turk Broda and Tim Horton will have statues unveiled in October when they are added to the team's Legends Row. ... Toronto RW Brad Boyes played his 800th NHL game on Thursday. ... The Leafs beat the Hurricanes 2-1 in a shootout on Nov. 20 at Carolina in the first meeting. ... The Maple Leafs play their next game Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens at Air Canada Centre. The Hurricanes return home to play the New York Rangers on Friday.