Canes shut out New Jersey, 1-0, in OT Aho pots winner in extra session

In Raleigh, the Hurricanes and visiting New Jersey Devils skated to a scoreless tie through to 80 seconds left in extra time on Saturday.

Sebastian Aho  put an end to the futility with a goal in the extra session for the 1-0 win to the Canes.

Pyotr Kochetkov made 34 saves for the shutout win, his second of the campaign.

“He couldn’t be much better,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said of Kochetkov. “He was sharp and (made) countless saves, and at big times too. He was the difference for sure.”

The Hurricanes moved to 30-16-5.

“I had no confidence after the red-line goal,” Kochetkov said. “(Tonight), I just focused on my position. I just wanted to do my work. Today felt a little bit better. The defense helped me. I don’t want to think a lot about how I play. I just want to play.”

New Jersey dropped to 25-21-4m, and have one win in their five matches.

“I thought we played one heck of a hockey game,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “I thought our detail was real good. We took away time and space, kept our feet moving in the (offensive) zone. We just didn’t finish.”

Vitek Vanecek. made 31 saves in the loss.

“I thought we had a lot of chances over the game, so did they,” Devils forward Timo Meier said. “It was a very tight game. There wasn’t a lot of room out there. It was playoff-type hockey. We would have loved to have the second point, but we can definitely build on this game.”