Hurricanes vs. Bruins: Sebastian Aho's Late Winner Keeps Pyotr Kochetkov Perfect at 8-0-0

Matthew Poitras had the whole net to shoot at. Midway through a tied third period in Raleigh, the Boston Bruins forward tried a backhand at an open cage and rang it off the post. About a minute later, at the other end, Sebastian Aho beat Jeremy Swayman on a backhand from the doorstep, and the league's best team had found its winner the way good teams usually do: by being on the right side of an inch.

That goal held up as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Bruins 2-1 on Tuesday night at Lenovo Center. It also kept Pyotr Kochetkov perfect. The Carolina goalie moved to 8-0-0, matching Frederik Andersen's franchise record for the longest winning streak to open a season, and he did it on a night when he barely needed to break a sweat.

A Chippy First, Then a Siege

Boston struck almost immediately. Just 91 seconds in, on an early power play, Pavel Zacha snapped home his third goal of the season, with Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak drawing the assists. For a team riding an eight-game points streak, that was exactly the start the Bruins wanted.

The rest of the period got testy. Nic Deslauriers and Tanner Jeannot fought in a lengthy bout in front of a crowd seeing its team at home for the first time in two weeks. Carolina finally drew even with 52 seconds left in the first, when Jackson Blake whipped in a wrist shot off a Nikolaj Ehlers feed for his third goal.

The second period was a one-way street with no reward. The Hurricanes outshot Boston 8-2 in the middle frame and could not solve Swayman, while a Jesperi Kotkaniemi clearance off the goal line at the other end kept it tied. Carolina owned the territory, and the scoreboard did not care.

The Turning Point: One Post, One Minute

Then came the sequence that decided everything. Poitras hit the post on what should have been the go-ahead goal. Roughly a minute later, Andrei Svechnikov drove into the zone and threw the puck to the middle. William Carrier got a piece of it, enough to take the pace off, and Aho was waiting at the doorstep with his backhand at 10:19.

It was Carolina's first lead of the night, and it arrived with 9:41 still on the clock. That left plenty of time for drama, and the Bruins got two late power plays to manufacture some. Carolina killed both. Jaccob Slavin gave the credit to the group and to the man behind them. "It's never fun to kill penalties, especially against a power play like that, late in the game, but it was a great unit of four," Slavin said, adding that "you need your goalie sometimes to be your best penalty killer."

Hockey is cruel like that. Boston's golden chance of the third period hit iron, and Carolina's next real chance hit twine.

Aho Closes, Kochetkov Collects

Aho's eighth goal of the season was also the 69th game-winning goal of his career, extending a franchise record. He has points in three straight games, and the AP noted he leads Carolina with 19 points. He kept his own review modest. "Obviously, after a long road trip, you want to start the homestand the right way, and we were able to do that. We'll definitely take the two points," Aho said.

Kochetkov made 15 saves on 16 shots for a .938 save percentage. That is not a workload, it is a shift at the front desk. But the record is real: per the Hurricanes, his eight straight wins to start a season are tied for the fourth-longest such run in NHL history, behind only Jack Campbell, Carey Price and Felix Potvin. Kochetkov sounded completely unbothered by the quiet night. "We always have this type of game, where I don't have lots of (work). It's just my job. The guys played well, and I'm happy today," he said.

Blake's goal stretched his point streak to four games, and Ehlers has now landed on the scoresheet in four straight as well, according to the team.

On the other side, Swayman was the only reason this was not a lopsided final. He stopped 28 of 30 shots for a .933 save percentage while his team managed just 16 shots in total. Pastrnak logged 22:39 and picked up an assist but finished minus-2. Zacha's goal was the only time Boston beat Kochetkov, and the Bruins' power play went 1-for-5, blanked on four tries after that early strike.

Stats That Matter

• 30-16: Carolina's edge in shots on goal, nearly double Boston's output.
• 8-0-0: Kochetkov's record, tying Andersen's franchise mark for a season-opening win streak.
• 69: Aho's career game-winning goals, the most in Hurricanes history.
• 0-for-4 vs. 1-for-5: The power plays. Carolina's penalty kill shut Boston out after Zacha's early goal.
• 23-12: Carolina's advantage in hits, a nice receipt for how physical the night got.

What It Means

The Hurricanes improve to 10-2-2 with 22 points, the best record in the league, and they have points in four straight games. Carolina had just come off a 3-1-1 road trip, so opening the homestand by beating another early Eastern Conference leader was a statement. They are now 3-1-1 at home after an 0-1-1 start in their own building, and Columbus visits Thursday.

Head coach Rod Brind'Amour liked the patience more than the scoreline. "We knew coming in that was the way the game was going to go," he said. "We should have had more [goals], but it doesn't always work that way, and then we got the one late. It was a pretty good game by this group."

Boston falls to 9-3-1 with 19 points. The loss ended an eight-game points streak and a two-game winning streak, and it was the first regulation defeat for the Bruins since a 4-1 home loss to Ottawa on Oct. 5. They are 4-2-1 on the road and head to St. Louis on Thursday. There is no shame in a one-goal loss to the league leader in its own barn, but generating only 16 shots is a trend the Bruins will not want to repeat.

Ron Swanson in the Crease

Kochetkov's season has had big Ron Swanson energy: show up, do the job, skip the speeches, go home with the win. Carolina will happily take another few weeks of that. And somewhere, Poitras is still thinking about that post.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and team notes as reported by the Carolina Hurricanes on nhl.com.