RALEIGH — The Hurricanes got two goals from Sebastian Aho — including one of Carolina’s two on the power play — scored shorthanded and cruised to a 6-2 win over the visiting Sabres on Saturday at PNC Arena.
Jack Drury, Stefan Noesen, Teuvo Teravainen and Brady Skjei also scored for Carolina, and Pyotr Kochetkov made 20 saves to improve to 3-0-1 in his last four starts.
Three observations
1. Top to bottom, Saturday’s win was arguably the Hurricanes’ most complete of the season. Carolina finished with 71.72% of the 5-on-5 shot attempts and 21 of the game’s 27 high-danger chances. The power play was 2 for 2, the penalty kill was 5 for 5, and the Hurricanes scored shorthanded.
“Obviously, it’s up there,” Aho said when asked if this was Carolina’s best effort of the season. “It just counts for the two points, but it’s nice to have that kind of effort. A nice way to end this homestead and it sets the tone for the big road trip.”
Drury has continued to up his play, scoring for the second straight game and third time in six. After posting just one assist in the first 15 games of the season, the fourth line center has three goals and two assists in the last eight games.
“We’ve got a great group here,” Drury said. “Guys make it easy and coaching staff makes it easy to get a lot of support from them. So just keep trying to stay confident and try to get better every day.”
Drury also dropped the gloves with 50 seconds left after Buffalo defenseman Connor Clifton had a late hit on Martin Necas, Drury’s team-leading second fight of the season.
“Gotta win ’em to get a little more credit,” Drury joked after the game. When asked if he’d hit up teammate Brendan Lemieux for more pointers, Drury quipped, “I need ’em. But maybe leave the fighting to him for a little bit.”
Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour is no fan of fighting, but he does like the compete level with which Drury is playing.
“You can tell Jack’s pushing to show he belongs all the time,” Brind’Amour said. “And that’s what you love about him. He’s an NHLer, but he knows, ‘I got to keep proving myself,’ and that’s how you got to be. He’s been good all year. It’s just to see him get rewarded for the effort.”
2. The Hurricanes entered Saturday’s game having scored just three times in 29 power play opportunities over the last nine games, including a three-game drought, while the penalty kill had allowed goals in three of the last five games. Against the Sabres, Carolina’s special teams looked unstoppable.
The power play scored twice with goals by Aho and Teravainen, both off of Andrei Svechnikov passes. The Hurricanes needed just 32 seconds to score those two man-advantage goals.
It was the first time this season Carolina scored multiple times on the power play at home and first time overall since Oct. 17 when it scored three times in a 6-3 win in San Jose.
Then with Carolina up 3-0 and shorthanded, Aho was given a double minor for high-sticking. The Hurricanes killed off 48 seconds of 5-on-3 time with ease — allowing no shots on goal — and then gave up just two Rasmus Dahlin slap shots in succession to finish off the four minutes.
3. It was a bounce-back performance for Kochetkov, who didn’t find out until after lunch that he would start because Antti Raanta — the latest Hurricanes player to come down with a bug that’s circulating through the locker room — wasn’t feeling well.
“We didn’t want to play him. … We were trying to give him a night off or night off,” Brind’Amour said. “But Rants was unable to go, so you got to give him credit for answering that.”
Kochetkov was glad to be able to put Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Islanders — he gave up the goals on just 16 shots — in the rear-view mirror.
“A little bit better,” Kochetkov said of his performance. “I felt bad after the Islanders game. I want(ed) today (to be) a nice chance for me to play better. The team and defense are (a) big help to me. Today, lots of goals.”
Kochetkov said he is starting to get acclimated to the NHL after bouncing between Raleigh and the AHL the past few seasons.
“For my confidence, I feel better when I play more games,” he said. “I’m happy now. It’s my dream. … At the start of the season, it was a little bit harder. And now I feel better. Every game I feel a little bit better.”
Number to know
6 — Penalty minutes for Sebastian Aho, tying the most in his career. The calls were … curious: a double minor for high-sticking J.J. Peterka after another Sabres player lifted his stick and a goaltender interference infraction when he was cross-checked into Eric Comrie (29 saves) by Connor Clifton.
“I thought so too, yeah,” Aho said of the calls being interesting. “But it goes 100 mph, the game, so it’s a tough sport to officiate.”
Plus
Sebastian Aho, Hurricanes center — Carolina’s best player was the team’s best player Saturday. He scored twice, had five shots on goal and 10 shot attempts, both team highs, and it seemed like he could have scored six or seven goals.
“He was real special tonight,” Brind’Amour said.
After scoring twice in the first 21:06 of the game, Aho had several chances to get the third.
“Players know when they have two, so it’s pretty automatic you try to get the third one,” he said.
Minus
The refs — I’m not sure whose dog Aho kicked before the game, but it might’ve been owned by one of Chris Schlenker and Ghislain Hebert. There wasn’t much the refs could do on the double minor, even though Aho was hardly at fault. But the goalie interference call was blown, plain and simple. Carolina also had just two power plays to Buffalo’s five despite dominating play much of the night.
They said it
“OK, let’s go! I don’t know, it’s hard to tell. I feel, I go. Sometimes I feel confident. I feel the player (doesn’t) see where I stay and just sees (the) puck. ‘OK, I have (a) nice chance.’”
— Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov on how he decides when to try a poke check on a breakaway.the
