Carolina Hurricanes, with Aho sidelined, can’t find way to beat Vancouver Canucks
The Carolina Hurricanes announced 30 minutes before game time Sunday that Sebastian Aho would not play against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Canes missed their best player.
Carolina arrived in Vancouver with three wins banked on its road trip, goalie Antti Raanta ready to take the net and plenty of momentum. But the Canucks, rejuvenated under new coach Bruce Boudreau, took a 2-1 victory at Rogers Arena as goalie Thatcher Demko earned his 12th win of the season with 28 saves.
The Canes said Aho was sidelined with an illness. Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said Aho, who leads the Canes with 15 goals and 32 points, “didn’t feel right” before the game and stayed behind at the team hotel, but had no other information about Aho’s status moving forward.
Martin Necas scored his seventh of the season at 2:32 of the third to pull the Canes within 2-1, Necas scoring on a two-on-one rush off a Seth Jarvis pass. The Canes had a chance to tie the score when Necas was tripped later in the third but couldn’t convert on their only power play of the game -- against a team last in the NHL in penalty killing.
After beating the Edmonton Oilers 3-1 Saturday, with Aho scoring twice, the Hurricanes (19-7-1) tried to gut out a second victory in two nights. But Brock Boeser scored in the first period and Elias Petterrsson in the second as Vancouver (12-15-2) stayed in front in winning a fourth straight for Boudreau, named head coach Dec. 5.
The Canes pressured Demko, a big goalie at 6-4 who has won his last four games, in the final period but couldn’t tie the score after Necas’ goal. It helped Demko that the Canucks blocked 24 Canes shots, seven by defenseman Tucker Poolman.
Raanta gave the Canes a chance with a quality start, making some tough stops among his 24 saves, and the Canes did compete hard despite the travel and lack of recovery time.
“The effort is always there. That’s never an issue,” Brind’Amour said. “We made it a little harder on ourselves than we needed to tonight, some weird plays we don’t normally make. It’s tough to come back when you’re chasing the game. We worked hard but just didn’t execute very well.”
The Canes believed they had scored the game’s first goal when Jesper Fast knocked a loose puck past Demko in the first period. It was disallowed as Andrei Svechnikov was ruled to have hit the puck with a high stick before Fast converted.
The Canucks then scored first, with 1:31 left in the first. When the Canes failed to clear the puck from their zone, J.T. Miller set up Boeser for an open look in the slot for his seventh goal of what has been an uneven season.
Pettersson, who also has under-performed this season, scored after a Carolina turnover at the Canes’ blue line. The Canucks were quickly down the ice and Pettersson picked up his fifth of the season at 7:44 of the second for a 2-0 lead.
Brind’Amour juggled his lines, having Jordan Staal center Nino Niederreiter and Teuvo Teravainen. Jesperi Kotkaniemi replaced Aho on the Canes’ top power-play unit.
The Canes have had three players in the COVID-19 protocol this season -- Ethan Bear, Brett Pesce and Tony DeAngelo, all right-shot defensemen. Bear has returned to the lineup but sat out against Calgary on Thursday with an illness.
With Aho a late scratch, the Canes had 11 forwards and seven defensemen in the lineup Sunday. Pesce and DeAngelo are out of COVID protocol and have been skating in Raleigh, and both could play Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.
This story was originally published December 13, 2021 at 12:35 AM.
