SEATTLE — Andrei Svechnikov and Sebastian Aho each had three points for the Carolina Hurricanes in their third straight win, 5-1 against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Monday.
Svechnikov scored twice and had an assist, and Aho had a goal and two assists for the Hurricanes, who are 3-0-0 to start the season. Frederik Andersen made 22 saves.
“You need your best players to be your best players if you want to have any kind of success in this league,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Three games in, but [Svechnikov and Aho] have certainly done their job, so we need to keep that going.”
Andrey Burakovsky scored and extended his point streak to four games for the Kraken (1-2-1). Philipp Grubauer made 29 saves.
“You make mistakes against good teams, especially when they put you under pressure, that’s going to come back to haunt you,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “That happened to us tonight. There are several different points in the hockey game where that happened. We took three minor penalties in a row in the middle of a second, but what led to the first one of those was a turnover and we tracked on that play. It’s little things that got us, and that’s what happens against good teams.”
Video: CAR@SEA: Aho scores PPG in 2nd period
The Hurricanes scored three goals, including two on the power play, in 2:33 during the second period.
Aho gave them a 2-0 lead with the man-advantage at 12:11 when he one-timed a feed from Svechnikov at the edge of the left face-off circle.
Burakovsky cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 13:06 after a cross-ice pass. Jordan Eberlebut Svechnikov scored 18 seconds later on the man-advantage when he took a pass from Aho and beat Grubauer with a wrist shot from the left circle at 13:24.
“Special teams were huge for us tonight,” Aho said. “Scoring a couple on the power [play] helps and obviously the PK was solid, so that was the game. I think we moved the puck pretty well and tried to outwork their PK. Those were big goals at the time.”
Svechnikov gave Carolina a 4-1 lead at 14.34 when he redirected a shot by Martin Necas.
“[Svechnikov] is a great player,” Aho said. “You always want to find him because he can put the puck in the net, just a great player.”
Video: CAR@SEA: Svechnikov redirects a shot for the second goal
Seth Jarvis made it 1-0 at 3:35 of the first period after a pass from Aho off the end boards.
Jordan Martinook scored at 14:41 of the third period when he knocked in a loose puck in front for the 5-1 final.
Andersen made 12 saves in the third.
“We’ve got to focus on defense first; that’s what it’s going to take,” the Seattle forward Jared McCann said. “Obviously things haven’t been going our way at the beginning of periods, so we’ve just got to bear down and make sure that we play good defense first.”
NOTES: The Hurricanes have allowed one goal in each of their first three games, including the past two on the road. … Svechnikov scored twice in 1:09, the fastest two goals by a Hurricanes player since Jeff Skinner (55 seconds) on Jan. 13, 2017. … Kraken rookie center Matty Beniers had his three-game point streak end. It was just the second time in 14 NHL games he did not have a point.
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