RALEIGH, N.C. • Craig Anderson has had such an outstanding start to the season, the National Hockey League named him first star for the month of January on Friday afternoon.

Another MVP-type performance to kick off February wasn’t enough to prevent his first regulation time loss of the campaign a few hours later, however.

Anderson allowed just one goal on 35 shots as the Senators fell 1-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena in Raleigh on Friday night.

Eric Staal scored at 15:45 of the first period and Dan Ellis — starting in place of struggling No. 1 goaltender Cam Ward — registered 33 saves to help the Hurricanes even their record at 3-3.

Carolina coach Kirk Muller might have a full-blown goalie controversy on his hands as a result. Ward is plodding along with a 1-3 record and .861 save percentage, while Ellis has won both his starts in impressive fashion.

He entered the game with the league’s second-best save percentage (.963), just behind Anderson’s .967.

There’s little time for loyalty in a shortened season, so Stanley Cup-winner Ward could soon find himself stapled to the bench.

The Senators, meanwhile, lost for the first time in three games after knocking off the Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens earlier this week.

Save for a last-minute flurry, they seemed to tire as the game wore on.

Their best opportunity to get back into this one came midway through the second, when Carolina defenceman Jamie McBain missed with a stick check and bloodied Chris Neil’s face.

That meant a four-minute power play for the Senators against the league’s 26th-ranked penalty kill, which they proceeded to fritter away without generating many chances. Kyle Turris hitting the outside of the post was as close as they got to knotting things up.

The kill ignited the crowd of 18,680, which rained some well-deserved noise on the PK participants.

Fans had been disappointed only minutes earlier when the goal horn sounded for an apparent Jeff Skinner goal, but video replay showed he’d rung the shot off the crossbar.

The Senators were probably happy to still be in the game after the first period.

Although the shots were close (15-12 for Carolina), the best chances went to the Hurricanes, who peppered Anderson early and often. He stopped a wide-open Andres Nodl shortly after the opening whistle and quickly followed up with a kick save and a couple of blocker stops to keep the score even at 0-0.

Carolina finally broke through after an Ottawa turnover in the offensive zone, however. With Colin Greening rushing to recover a lost stick and Erik Karlsson chasing, Alex Semin rushed into the Ottawa end, turned at the blue-line, and fired a shot that was tipped into the top corner by Eric Staal.