Carolina muzzle Coyotes, 6-1 Aho scores twice to help Carolina end two-game skid

In Tempe, the Arizona Coyotes had no answer to the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night.

Carolina took a 3-0 lead through the nearly second period and never looked back in a 6-1 win.

Shayne Gostisbehere scored for the Canes in his debut with Carolina after being traded away by the Coyotes earlier in the week,.

“It’s a very close-knit group here, and they pulled me in and made me feel part of this, and that made it easier to go out and play,” Gostisbehere said. “There’s a lot of terminology I’m not familiar with, but everyone out there helped me out.”

Antti Raanta made 17 saves in the Hurricanes win.

“Lose two games and there’s teams behind you who are chasing you, you don’t want to take too much pressure off [them],” Raanta said. “I thought we did a very good job today, the whole 60 minutes.”

The win snapped a two-game skid.

Paul Stastny scored in the first period to give the Canes a 1-0 lead.

Carolina improved to 40-12-8.

In the middle frame, Sebastian Aho scored off a breakaway for a 2-0 lead, and Jacob Slavin pushed the lead to 3-0.

Lawson Crouse scored to get the Coyotes on the board at 3-1.

“It was a tough day for us all,” Crouse said. “Obviously a hard loss to a good team over there, and it didn’t seem like a lot of fun.”

The Coyotes dropped to 21-32-9.

Carolina then scored three consecutive power play goals to put the game away.

Gostisbehere, Aho, and Martin Necas  scored off the power play  in the third period for the 6-3 final.

“Three out of four on the power play, it’s just a game changer,” Necas said. “It kills any momentum that they get against us.”

Karel Vejmelka made 36 saves in the loss.

“Obviously you’ve got to get a mental reset, it’s been a busy week and I’ve lost a lot of good friends,” Crouse said. “As difficult as it is with the lineup situation, we’ve got to find a way to put our best foot forward and compete every game or it’s going to be long 20 games remaining.”