RALEIGH, N.C. -- Michael Leighton is back in the NHL. Gerrard Gallant is out.Leighton but made 31 saves for the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday night in 3-2 victory over Florida that turned out to be coach Gerrard Gallants last with the Panthers.Florida fired coach Gallant after the game, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. Tom Rowe, who was promoted to general manager before the season, will assume the coaching duties, said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team hasnt announced the moves.Leighton hadnt been in an NHL net in four years and hadnt won in six. He shrugged off a two-goal deficit as his teammates scored three goals in the second period, stopping 31 shots.Jeff Skinner had a goal and an assist to spark the rally, which stopped a two-game losing streak and a six-game slide in the series.Viktor Stalberg and Derek Ryan also scored for Carolina, with Ryan getting his first of the season.Leighton was outstanding, said Carolina coach Bill Peters said, whose team has won five straight home games. Once it was 3-2 he made four or five good saves. He made a great glove save on (Alexsander) Barkov coming across the middle, made a save on a penalty kill on (Aaron) Ekblad coming around the back door. He made some great saves.Cam Ward had started the previous nine games in goal for Carolina. Regular backup goalie Eddie Lack has been on injured reserve under concussion protocol for six days, with Leighton called up from Charlotte of the American Hockey League to serve as backup.Jonathan Marchessault and Ekblad scored for Florida, and Barkov had two assists.Im happy to be back and happy to get a win, Leighton said. I felt better as the game went on. The first two goals were kind of fluky. As a team we knew we had to play better in the second period. We came out flying and that made my job a little easier.Florida goalie James Reimer had 24 saves.Floridas Jaromir Jagr played in his 1,651st NHL game, tying him with Chris Chelios for fifth in NHL history. The 44-year-old Jagr had a first-period assist.Jagr is a game behind former Pittsburgh teammate and former Hurricane Mark Recchi for fourth place. The Czech star has 1,127 assists and is eight behind former Hurricane Paul Coffey for fifth on that list.For five minutes we let them come back in the game, Gallant said in his final interview as Florida coach. They scored three goals, and that was disappointing because we played 55 good minutes tonight, but it wasnt good enough.Hurricanes forward Jordan Staal sustained an upper-body injury in the first period and did not return.Florida took a 2-0 lead in the first period, outshooting the Hurricanes 16-9.Marchessault scored at 5:41 on a power play, picking up his 10th of the season when he followed Jagrs shot to beat Leighton. The goal broke Carolinas NHL-best streak of 25 consecutive penalties killed.Ekblad followed at 9:51, with Barkov earning an assist.Stalberg cut the lead in half at 5:21 of the second, beating Reimer glove-side.At 7:12, Skinner tied it on a breakaway, taking a lead pass from Rask and roofing the puck past Reimer glove side. And then at 8:49, Ryan scored his first goal of the season, a power-play marker with the assist from Skinner after Ryan won a faceoff.Its a big win, Skinner said. The last couple of games weve been right there and havent really found the way to get the result. Tonight after the first period we had a good response. We found a way to dig deep and get the result.Game notesFlorida alternate captain Jussi Jokinen played in 288 games for the Hurricanes from 2008-13. ... Carolina D Noah Hanifin played in his 100th NHL game. ... Hurricanes LW Brock McGinn (upper body) missed his second straight game, and D Klas Dahlbeck and D Ryan Murphy were healthy scratches. . Florida LW Shawn Thornton and D Dylan McIlrath were healthy extras. ... The teams will play twice more this season, both in Florida on Feb. 28 and March 21.UP NEXTPanthers: Visit Chicago on Tuesday night in the second of a six-game trip.Hurricanes: At the New York Rangers on Tuesday night in the opener of a three-game trip.Brian Dawkins Jersey .Y. - General manager Billy King says the Brooklyn Nets are looking to add a big man and confirmed the team worked out centre Jason Collins, who would become the first openly gay active NBA player if signed. Randall Cunningham Womens Jerseyhttp://www.theeaglesshoponline.com/Youth-Reggie-White-Eagles-Jersey/ . Clarkson had been dealing with an elbow injury in early January and will be out of action for at least one week. He has three goals and five assists through 36 games with the Leafs this season. Tommy McDonald Youth Jersey . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer. Randall Cunningham Youth Jersey . 9. Price, heading to the 2014 Olympics for Canada, was named the First Star after posting wins in three starts with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .971 save percentage.JOLIET, Ill. -- Kyle Busch put his 2016 wins to good use Friday. He used them to win a pole.The top seed in the Chase for the third time in his career, Busch for the first time enters the postseason as the defending champion. He believes the confidence earned by winning the Sprint Cup can help as he tries to earn back-to-back championships.We have a lot of expectations on us, but I feel as though being able to win the championship last year it sort of solidified my career a little bit more, Busch said. [It] also gave us the opportunity to know that were a championship team and we can do this.Weve just got to make sure that things kind of go our way and youve got to have a little bit of luck on your side in order to get there to the end.The key to Busch winning the 2015 title was his allowing the Chase to come to him. He didnt run up front all that much as he led more than 20 laps in the Chase-opening race and then not again until leading 41 on the way to the win in the championship event at Homestead, Florida.He did what he had to do to advance and then capitalized on the opportunity.That will be his goal again starting Sunday in the Chase-opening race at Chicagoland Speedway.He will start from the pole as qualifying was canceled because rain washed out the initial practice scheduled for early Friday afternoon. All of the 16 Chase drivers will line up 1 to 16, with Busch and Brad Keselowski -- the two drivers with four wins this year -- on the front row.Anything can happen, Busch said. We could have a bad car to start off the race and we could fade real quick and well have to fight our way back. Hopefully that doesnt happen.The pole will give him the coveted first pit stall at pit out position, which could be key at Chicagoland, often a track posittion affair.dddddddddddd Busch just hopes he can put it to good use -- it could be a wild start with drivers who would have qualified better starting further back because they lined up by points.With all the Chase guys starting up front all together, that certainly is going to be an interesting situation that all of us are going to be right on top of each other to fire off, Busch said. Youre going to see some guys that are deeper in the field that will have some speed.It will be interesting to see what happens there and what the Chase guys do and how many of them dont have the speed they need.Busch is keeping himself busy on the track this weekend. He is competing in all three national series events. The truck race Friday night -- which he won -- was his last in that series of the year. In addition to the Xfinity Series race Saturday, he has races coming up at Dover, Kansas and Phoenix left on that series schedule.Is that good?Yes and no, Busch said. It could go both ways.Busch will have to just take things as they come if he wants to find himself with a shot at Homestead. Last year, after missing 11 races because of injury, he felt he was playing with house money in the Chase.Hell try to carry that feeling again.Youve got a different or a better mindset of being able to race for a championship after once accomplishing one because you knew what it took to accomplish that and last year it was not all that stressful, Busch said.We just kind of let it play out and be as it was and we were going to be happy with the results no matter what, so youve kind of got to do the same thing this time around and let fate be with you. ' ' '