Aho has three-point night to lead Hurricanes to 4-1 victory over Senators

Carolina Hurricanes right wing Stefan Noesen (23) keeps the puck from Ottawa Senators defenceman Travis Hamonic (23) during third period NHL hockey action in Ottawa on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

After a 4-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday night, the Ottawa Senators emerged as their own harshest critics.

Josh Norris, who scored the lone Ottawa goal, called the second period "pretty embarrassing," while coach D.J. Smith said it may have been the worst period his team has played this season.

"Just not hard enough, not desperate enough to keep the puck out of the net," said Smith. "If you're not bang-on in the NHL, you won't win. And that second period, that's probably our worst period of the year I thought from a compete level for the amount of chances.

"We gave up breakaways and what have you. You're not going to win if you play like that."

The game was tied 1-1 after the first period on goals from Norris and a power-play goal from Martin Necas.

Carolina scored three times in a dominant second period. Sebastian Aho scored twice and had an assist on the other goal by Seth Jarvis.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 30 saves.

"He made some huge saves," said Aho. "He kept us in the game, especially early on. It was just a great game by him and hopefully he can build some confidence off this."

Ottawa had two early power-play chances in the second period but were unable to capitalize.

"You never want to come out with that performance in that second period there," said Brady Tkachuk. "Definitely a lot to be learned from this game. Now we've got a huge road trip coming up for us, so it's time to step up and dial it in."

Ottawa plays five of its next seven games on the road.

Aho gave Carolina the lead with a power-play goal on a shot from the point at 12:18 of the second period. He picked up an assist 81 seconds later when Jarvis beat Korpisalo.

Aho scored again at 17:19 by taking advantage of some poor defensive coverage to go in uncontested for his 10th goal of the season.

Carolina ended a four-game losing streak.

"I think we were just a little more dialed in," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour. "You know, obviously, it's such a fine line from winning and losing and doing the little things right, which I thought we did here tonight for the most part and then you get pucks to go in."

Kochetkov was at his best in the third period.

He stopped Drake Batherson on a breakaway midway through the period and also stopped Tkachuk on a penalty shot late in the game with a diving poke-check.

Tkachuk took offence at the move and had words for Kochetkov before skating away. When he returned to the ice, he attempted to approach Kochetkov again and was restrained by officials and given a misconduct.

"I came in with a lot of speed and it felt like he just poked my legs," said Tkachuk. "And of course, I went into the boards hard. That could be on me there. I was about to make my play there and of course he came out.

"I don't like going that hard into the boards. I'll leave it at that."

Tkachuk was awarded the penalty shot after officials felt Kochetkov threw his stick to make a save.

Ottawa was 0-for-4 with the man advantage and is now 0-for-18 on the power play over its last five home games.

"Tonight, we got a little frustrated," said Smith. "We had a couple looks early and it didn't go in. But that's a really good penalty killing team, so you can't get frustrated. They're one of the top (teams) in the league every year."

UP NEXT

Ottawa: Takes on the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

Carolina: Heads to Detroit to take on the Red Wings on Thursday night.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2023.