Aho has a goal, 3 assists to lead Hurricanes over Predators 5-2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- — Sebastian Aho scored a goal and assisted on three others to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 5-2 victory over the Nashville Predators on Wednesday night.

Andrei Svechnikov, Brent Burns and Seth Jarvis each had a goal and an assist and Jack Drury also scored for Carolina, which had lost two in a row. Pyotr Kochetkov made a season-high 35 saves.

“We scored, which was nice,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “The power play was good, obviously connecting and then I thought (Kochetkov) played really well. At the end of the day, that’s the difference. He was solid (and) he outplayed the other guy. If we can get that, then we have a chance.”

Ryan O’Reilly had a goal and an assist and Gustav Nyquist also scored while Juuse Saros made 14 saves for Nashville, which has dropped three of four.

Aho scored the game’s first goal at 9:50 of the opening period.

With the Hurricanes on power play, Aho snapped off a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off the skate of Predators defenseman Luke Schenn and snuck by Saros on the short side.

The goal was the 500th point of Aho’s NHL career. He’s been nearly a point-per-game player in his career, with Wednesday marking his 552nd game played. His four points were a season high and his three assists tied a career high.

Burns doubled the Carolina lead with 4:52 remaining in the first, also on the power play.

“It’s hard to win in this league when you’re chasing the game,” Nashville coach Andrew Brunette said.

The Hurricanes were 3 of 6 on the power play and are 5 of 10 in the last two games.

“It’s clicking,” Aho said of the power play. “It feeds the confidence when you get a couple of goals there. As of late, we’ve been pretty solid executing those plays.”

Nyquist scored at 1:18 of the second. Just after the puck went into the net, Svechnikov collided with Nyquist and Nyquist remained down on the ice before heading to the dressing room. He returned later in the period.

Svechnikov was initially assessed a major penalty on the play, but the penalty was rescinded upon video review. He scored just 2:26 later.

O’Reilly scored a power-play goal at 5:08 of the second, but Drury restored Carolina’s two-goal lead at 9:56.

“We started good and did a lot of good things,” O’Reilly said. “The penalty kill wasn’t our best, a few bad bounces on there too, which just kind of sparked them.”

Jarvis scored Carolina’s third power-play goal of the game with 2:06 remaining in the second.

Yaroslav Askarov replaced Saros to start the third period. Askarov was recalled from Milwaukee of the AHL earlier Wednesday when Kevin Lankinen was unavailable due to an illness.

Making his second career appearance, Askarov stopped all six shots he faced.

UP NEXT

Hurricanes: Host Montreal Thursday.

Predators: Visit Detroit Friday.

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