PHOENIX (AP) -- The Phoenix Coyotes were 7-5 winners over the Carolina Hurricanes Wednesday night, but they sounded like losers afterward. Almost blowing a 6-1 lead will do that to you.

"We played our butts off for two periods and worked hard. That's how we got the lead," Dallas Drake said. "Then everybody dozed off on the bench and we let them right back in the hockey game. There's just a terrible feeling in here right now. It was just ridiculous."

Jeremy Roenick rescued the Coyotes by scoring their final two goals, one short-handed and the other into an empty net to clinch the victory with 21 seconds to play.

Drake had a goal and two assists for the Coyotes, who led 6-1 before Carolina scored four times in the third period after Phoenix goalie Sean Burke left with a groin pull and was replaced by Bob Essensa.

Trevor Letowski and Greg Adams each added a goal and assist for the Coyotes.

Paul Coffey and Sean Hill had a goal and an assist apiece for Carolina. The Hurricanes cut the lead to 6-5 on Robert Kron's ninth goal of the season at 16:33 and had the pressure on the rest of the way but couldn't tie it.

Carolina pulled its goalie in the final seconds and Roenick punched in his 30th goal of the season to clinch it. Roenick and Gary Roberts got into a brief fight after the last goal and both finished the game in the penalty box.

"It was the good, the bad and the ugly," Phoenix coach Bobby Francis said. "For 40 minutes, we were very good. Then we decided to play the game easy and we were bad. And what looked like a real good win turned into an ugly one."

It was a short, miserable night for Carolina goalkeeper Arturs Irbe, who was pulled in favor of Mark Fitzpatrick after giving up his third goal 13:21 into the game.

The Coyotes, who managed just seven goals in their just-completed 0-3-1 trip to the East, were fired up at the start after Carolina's Gary Roberts, back after missing seven games with a groin injury, got into a fight with Phoenix's Rick Tocchet just 2 1/2 minutes into the contest.

"Usually getting into a fight picks the team up," Roberts said, "but tonight it backfired. I got their team going, not our team."

Adams' 14th goal of the season put the Coyotes up 1-0 just 3:53 into the game.

The Coyotes, who beat Carolina at home for the first time since the franchise moved to Phoenix in 1996, then scored twice in a 25-second span.

Letowski's shot deflected off the stick of Hogue into the net for Hogue's first goal of the season at 12:56 and Phoenix led 2-0.

An instant later, Carolina's Steve Halko couldn't control the puck, and it went right to Letowski, who scored his 13th goal of the season`and Irbe's night was over.

Carolina's scored when Ron Francis flipped the puck past goalie Sean Burke in front of the net to cut the lead to 3-1 at 14:00.

Phoenix scored three times in the last 8:39 of the second period.

Adams had a slick assist when he deflected teammate Teppo Numinen's pass with his skates to Drake, who knocked it in from close range for his 11th goal this season and put Phoenix up 4-1 at 12:12 of the second. Mike Sullivan's goal at 14:31 of the second made it 5-1, then Roenick nailed a slapshot from the top of the right circle for a short-handed goal that put the Coyotes up 6-1 with nine seconds left in the second period. It was Phoenix's 13th short-handed goal, most in the NHL.

"When it's 6-1 you pretty much figure you got it done," Carolina coach Paul Maurice said. "I think they sat back a little bit and we threw a few pucks at the net and found our way in, but they deserved to win the hockey game."

Martin Gelinas scored just 35 seconds into the third period, then Coffey added a goal at 5:16 to cut the lead to 6-3. Hill's power-play goal at 11:05 made it 6-4.