SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) -- Finally beating the Carolina Hurricanes wasn't enough to satisfy the Florida Panthers.

Pavel Bure and Scott Mellanby scored power-play goals as the Panthers snapped a seven-game winless streak against Carolina with a 5-1 win Friday night.

	Carolina's Kent Manderville gets trapped between Florida's Oleg Kvasha, left, and Jaroslav Spacek on Friday.

Florida, which leads Carolina by 14 points in the Southeast division, had been 0-3-4 in its last seven games against last season's division champs.

"We're in great position but there's a long way to go," Mellanby said. "They've come back on us a lot with us holding leads. ... This is a team we really wanted to finish off."

Bure, who notched his 30th goal along with an assist, has nine goals and five assists in his last six games.

"We have a 14-point lead but there are still 40 games left," Bure said. "We can't be satisfied."

Mellanby's power-play goal at 4:03 of the second period gave Florida a 2-1 lead. Bure's pinpoint wrist shot from the blue line was redirected by Mellanby, who recorded his 11th goal of the season and 600th point (267 goals, 333 assists) in 15 NHL seasons.

Viktor Kozlov received the first of two assists, giving him 30 for the season.

"We've been chasing Florida for about three weeks," Hurricanes' coach Paul Maurice said. "Anything's possible in this league, but the fact of the matter is we're battling six other teams."

Carolina is in seventh place in the Eastern Conference.

"Three teams from our division can make the playoffs," Maurice said. "We're in a dogfight with the other teams."

Florida broke open a 2-1 game in the third period with three goals within 4:31. Rob Niedermayer, Ray Whitney and Mark Parrish all scored even-strength goals. Mellanby added an assist on Niedermayer's goal.

"We're not going to get too excited," Panthers coach Terry Murray said. "We're not satisfied. We've got a lot of work to do."

Mike Vernon had 30 saves, including two sprawling stops against Andrei Kovalenko during a Hurricanes' power play in the closing seconds of the second period to preserve Florida's 2-1 lead.

"He stopped a lot of shots and just played great tonight," Kovalenko said. "They made a great trade to get him. He's still one of the great goalies and tonight he showed he can still play."

Carolina also scored a power-play goal when Paul Coffey swatted in a rebound of Jeff O'Neill's shot from the point. It was Coffey's fourth goal of the season and 389th of his career.

Bure opened the scoring in the first period, when he took Robert Svehla's breakout pass, faked a slap shot and slipped a wrist shot past Arturs Irbe. Irbe (3-1-4) lost his first career decision to Florida.