Aho has 3 points, Hurricanes defeat Senators to end 4-game skid

OTTAWA -- Sebastian Aho had two goals and an assist for the Carolina Hurricanes, who ended a four-game skid with a 4-1 win against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

All of Aho’s points came in the second period when the Hurricanes scored three unanswered goals.

“It’s been a tough road trip for us, so it’s nice to get back in the win column,” Aho said. “Obviously, our goalie played a hell of a game. Special teams were huge and with the goalie’s game, probably the reason we won.”

Seth Jarvis and Martin Necas scored, Brady Skjei had two assists, and Pyotr Kochetkov made 31 saves for Carolina (15-12-1).

“Our goalie was great tonight,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Third period aside, I mean, the game was kind of out of hand and we kind of gave up too much there, but you know, [Kochetkov] held us in. There were some good saves and then special teams were big. Penalty kill was huge, you know, bad penalties there, but then the power play was good, so all around that’s what we needed.”

Josh Norris scored, and Joonas Korpisalo made 24 saves for the Senators (11-12-0), who had won three of their previous four games.

“The second period was as bad as we’ve played, maybe this year,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “And that team came ready to do it right. Disappointing after what I thought was probably 15 of our best periods of the year. We had a real opportunity here and we were just no good.”

The Hurricanes were 2-for-2 on the power play; the Senators were 0-for-4.

“We couldn’t really get in,” Norris said of the power play. “Once we were in their zone, they had good pressure on us and we didn’t really make many plays. Obviously, they pressured hard and credit to them, but we’re skilled players and we’ve got to be able to figure that out.”

Norris gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 7:27 of the first period when he tipped in Erik Brannstrom’s point shot.

Necas one-timed a cross-ice pass from Skjei on the power play to tie it 1-1 at 18:49.

“I think we were just a little more dialed in,” Brind’Amour said. “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.”

Aho scored a power-play goal with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead at 12:18 of the second period.

“I think our effort’s been there, but the execution hasn’t and there’s been a lot of inconsistencies,” Jarvis said. “But I think tonight everything kind of fell into place and clicked. Power play makes a huge difference. When you can score multiple times it really kills the momentum.”

Jarvis scored to make it 3-1 at 13:39 when Aho was on a breakaway and dropped the puck to Jarvis, who scored past a sprawling Korpisalo.

“We’ve played some great hockey lately. Obviously, tonight wasn’t our best effort,” Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson said. “Like I said, we’ve got to put a better effort in for ‘Korpi.’ He’s sitting there, they had countless breakaways. Just frustrating for him when that’s coming down on you all the time.”

Aho made it 4-1 at 17:19 when he skated around Tim Stutzle at the point, drove down the middle of the slot and scored with a wrist shot blocker side.

“Just not hard enough, not desperate enough to keep the puck out of the net,” Smith said of his team’s defending. “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.”

Senators captain Brady Tkachuk was awarded a penalty shot at 15:39 of the third period after Kochetkov threw his stick during a scoring chance. The attempt was saved by Kochetkov, who came out of his crease and dove at an onrushing Tkachuk to poke away the puck.

“That flying poke check was sweet, I love that,” Jarvis said. “[Kochetkov’s] crazy. He’s jawing at Tkachuk after and everyone loves that. We love him and he did a great job tonight.”

NOTES: Aho became the fifth player in Hurricanes/Whalers history with 40 or more multigoal games. … Carolina defenseman Tony DeAngelo had an assist and one shot in 9:35 of ice time in his first game since Nov. 18. … The Senators have failed to score on their past 20 power plays at home. … Tkachuk had a game-high eight shots.