Sebastian Aho, Hurricanes hold off Maple Leafs 3-2 for third consecutive win

TORONTO -- — Sebastian Aho had one goal and two assists in leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a 3-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Michael Bunting and Seth Jarvis also scored for Carolina. The victory extended the Hurricanes’ winning streak to three games. Pyotr Kochetkov made 25 saves.

“Our goalie ... was great” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I hate that the last one counted because it was such a great save.

“But he was the difference. Kept us in there, made some big saves and obviously we were able to capitalize on the power play early.”

Timothy Liljegren and Nicholas Robertson scored for Toronto, which got 25 stops from Martin Jones.

The Leafs have dropped three straight and five of their last six.

“Yeah … even strength, our game has really improved (from) the start of the week,” Toronto captain John Tavares said. “We played against Ottawa, ended up letting the game get away from us, (then) giving up as much as we did yesterday."

Carolina went 2-for-4 on the power play, while Toronto went 0-for-3.

“Team played hard, team played well. Obviously special teams are the difference in the game,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We knew that was going to be a major challenge coming in.

“In the last month or so, both on power play and penalty kill, that’s been the top team in the league and it’s carried them through a lot. So 5-on-5, I liked our game a lot; defensively did not give up very much at all … but obviously, we didn’t score, couldn’t score enough.”

Bunting opened the scoring just 2:24 into the contest on the power play. Aho found him open in the slot from behind the goal and he beat Jones five-hole.

The Leafs continued to struggle finding the back of the net in the second period. Matthew Knies got a takeaway in Carolina’s zone and went in on net but couldn’t get a shot off trying to shield the puck from a defender.

Jarvis doubled the lead on another power play at 13:52 of the second period.

Liljegren put Toronto on the board 4:16 into the third period. Max Domi drove down the left side and found Liljegren trailing and he wired it past Kochetkov.

Aho intercepted a pass in his own zone and dashed down the ice to score an empty-netter with 54.7 seconds left.

Robertson scored with 10 seconds left to bring the Leafs to within one. The play was reviewed and overturned to a goal due to Kochetkov’s glove going past the goal line.

UP NEXT

Hurricanes: At the New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

Maple Leafs: At the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.

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AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL