Sebastian Aho nets four points, hit milestone in Canes' win

Field Level Media|published: Wed 27th December, 22:55 2023

Dec 27, 2023; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho (20) skates with the puck during the second period against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena. credits: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Sebastian Aho tallied one goal and three assists in reaching a career milestone and the Carolina Hurricanes rode special teams to a 5-2 victory against the host Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.

Brian Burns, Andrei Svechnikov, Jack Drury and Seth Jarvis also scored for the Hurricanes, who scored three times on power plays. Burns, Svechnikov and Jarvis also all had one assist in the team's second victory in the last six games, though Carolina has points in five of those outings.

Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov made his fifth straight start for Carolina, recording 35 saves. The outcome helped avenge Nashville's overtime road victory less than two weeks earlier.

Ryan O'Reilly posted one goal and one assist for the Predators, who outshot Carolina in all three periods but trailed 5-2 entering the third. Gustav Nyquist also scored, while goalie Juuse Saros was pulled after allowing five goals on 19 shots through two periods. Yaroslav Askarov finished in net, stopping all six shots he faced.

Both teams entered the matchup with 38 points in 34 games as they came off the three-day Christmas break. The Predators lost for the third time in four games following a four-game winning streak.

Aho's 14th goal of the season gave him 500 career points. That was the opening goal of the game at 9:50 of the first period. Of his points, 232 have come on goals.

Burns posted his sixth goal five minute later on another power play.

The teams combined for four goals in the first 10 minutes of the second period. Nashville pulled within 2-1 on Nyquist's sixth goal and within 3-2 on O'Reilly's 14th goal. The goal from O'Reilly was the Predators' lone conversion on four power-play opportunities.

Svechnikov notched his third goal — in between the Predators' goal — and Drury recorded his fifth goal in the second-period outburst. Jarvis produced the last of Carolina's power-play tallies with 2:06 left in the period for his 12th goal of the season.

After nine total penalties were assessed in the first two periods, there were none in the third.

—Field Level Media

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