Hurricanes edge Maple Leafs, 3-2 Aho stays hot in Canes win

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In Toronto, the Maple Leafs latest woes continued  on Saturday in a 3-2 loss to the visiting Caroline Hurricanes. Sebastian Aho potted a marker and had three points in the win.

“Definitely probably my best stretch in three games, especially in my NHL career,” Aho said. “I don’t know if I had something like this going on in juniors, but it’s been good. It’s nice to produce but obviously winning three in a row now, that’s great.”

Pyotr Kochetkov made 25 saves in the win.

The Canes moved to 20-13-14 off the third straight win.

“We’re just really desperate right now,” Carolina’s Seth Jarvis said. “We know how tight our division is and we know how everything can change so quickly. We don’t want to be outside looking in come playoff time so we’re just trying to get as many points as we can right now and make sure we give ourselves the best chance possible.”

Michael Bunting staked Carolina to a 1-0 lead with a power play strike at 2:24 of the opening stanza.

“Any time you are able to get a quick goal there, you build some confidence going into the game but obviously this one was special coming back home and coming back to the old team,” Bunting said. “I wanted to be an impact player right off the start and I think I did that.”

Caroline was 2-for-4 on the power play.

Jarvis pushed the lead to 2-0 at 13:52 of the middle frame.

The Maple Leafs dropped to 17-10-7 off their third straight loss.

“It was a tight hockey game and I thought we played pretty well, especially at even strength,” Maple Leafs captain John Tavares said. “Special teams was big tonight, we were on the wrong end of it. Every point matters. In general, not a great week for us, only coming up with a point and not coming out of the (Christmas) break the way we wanted to. Important to regroup, get back to work and know we got to bounce back and continue to build our game and obviously get the results that we need.”

Toronto trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on a marker from Timothy Liljegren  at 4:16 of the third period.

Carolina killed off three power p[lay chances the Maple Leafs had.

“Special teams, they were huge tonight,” Aho said. “A couple of power plays and especially at the end of a few good kills there so they were huge.”

Aho hit an empty net at 19:05  of the third for a 3-1 lead.

“He’s playing really well right now,” Jarvis said of Aho. “His head is kind of big right now so I’ve got to keep him humble. He’s doing great. He’s making plays all over the ice for us not only on the stat sheet but the stuff he does away from the puck on the penalty kill, everything like that, he’s been really effective for us.”

The Maple Leafs got pone back with 10 seconds left on the game clock when Nicholas Robertson scored to make the 3-2 final count.

Martin Jones made 25 saves in the loss.

“Frustrations are a useless emotion,” Toronto coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I don’t get caught up in that. We just got to keep playing and keep going. Guys played a good game. It’s a tough back-to-back against a very good team that doesn’t give you an inch out there. Our guys were right there. It’s another game that can go either way.”