Hockey
Aho stars at home: two goals as the Hurricanes beat the Kraken 4-1 in Helsinki
Sebastian Aho gave his country a dream night. On Thursday at Veikkaus Arena in Helsinki, the Finnish centre scored twice in front of more than 13,000 of his compatriots to lead the defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken, opening the NHL Global Series in Finland. A perfect homecoming, ten years to the day after his first NHL goal.
Ten years to the day
On November 12, 2016, Aho scored his first NHL goal against Philipp Grubauer, then the Washington Capitals' goaltender. Ten years later to the day, he faced the same goaltender, now with Seattle, and beat him twice, in front of his home crowd, in his first NHL game in his native country. His first goal of the night, the 321st of his career, tied Olli Jokinen for fourth among Finnish goal-scorers in NHL history. His second, the 322nd, tied him with Eric Staal for the most goals in Hurricanes franchise history. The two goals were his 11th and 12th of the season, moving him alone into the team lead ahead of Logan Stankoven, and he now has three goals and seven points in his last three games.
A flying start, then the brace
Carolina wasted little time imposing itself. Nikolaj Ehlers opened the scoring at 11:44 of the first period with a wrist shot from the blue line. Seattle challenged the goal for goaltender interference, lost the challenge and took a delay-of-game penalty. On the ensuing power play, Aho doubled the lead with 7:10 left in the period, finishing a perfect feed from Jackson Blake at the side of the net. The two goals came 1:06 apart. In the second period, fellow Finn Juuso Välimäki made it 3-0, his third goal of the season, on a fortunate bounce off a Seattle stick. Aho completed his brace at 11:41 of the third, a one-timer from the slot after tic-tac-toe passing with Andrei Svechnikov and K'Andre Miller. Frederik Gaudreau broke the shutout with 6:45 left, on Seattle's only shot of the period.
The Carolina machine keeps rolling
Outshot 30-13, the Kraken (9-6-1) never found an answer. Brandon Bussi needed only 12 saves for Carolina, while Grubauer stopped 26 of 30. The Hurricanes (14-3-2), first in the NHL standings and beaten only three times in regulation in their first 19 games, confirmed they are the team to beat this season. The two teams meet again on Saturday in Helsinki, at 1 p.m. ET, for the second game of the Global Series. For Aho, the night will live long in the memory: a brace at home, records tied and a whole arena on its feet.