How Sebastian Aho’s latest 2OT Hurricanes playoff goal added to clutch history
Sebastian Aho of the Carolina Hurricanes had the double-overtime goal that ended the Stanley Cup playoff series over the New Jersey Devils.
It wasn’t the first double-overtime postseason goal of Aho’s hockey career. Nor was it the biggest.
Aho would also have the best view in the house of a double-overtime score by the Canes that knocked the Washington Capitals out of the playoffs a year after the Caps won the Cup.
Aho was 17 years old and playing for Karpat Oulu in the championship game of Finland’s SM-liiga when his double-OT goal in Game 7 caused mass pandemonium in the arena and had fireworks being shot into the sky outside it.
“It was unreal,” Aho said Saturday in an interview. “Obviously it was double OT and in the finals, so that’s as deep as you can get in the playoffs, right? It was awesome. To win the championship and be with the guys after a double-overtime goal was such a cool event and still cool looking back at it.
“It’s hard to believe that was 10 years ago.”
True enough, but it hasn’t dimmed his memory of the play or that day in 2015. Replays show Aho scoring a breakaway. After beating Tappara Tampere goalie Juha Metsola, he made a mad dash across the ice and was mobbed by his teammates.
“I kind of took off and it was an unbelievable pass and I kind of split the D and scored,” Aho said.
Forehand or backhand?
“Backhand,” he said quickly, remembering every detail.
Soon, Aho was holding up the championship trophy: the Kanada-malja. Translation: Canada Bowl.
Seems that Finland’s championship trophy was gifted in 1950 from the Finnish community in Canada – the Kanadansuomalaiset. The SM-liiga trophy is made of silver and it’s big.
“I know it’s not easy to grab on to,” Aho said.
But Aho, hardly a big guy at 17, was able to grab it and lift it over his head in victory.
“Of course,” he said, smiling. “It was such a cool moment, you have to do it. It was a little kid’s dream first to play for that club, then to win the championship.”
There’s now another big trophy in his sights, one that’s silver, big and heavy and kept at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Canada -- the Stanley Cup.
“As a kid, it was a dream,” Aho said. “Once I got in the league, it became more of a goal than a dream.”
After dispatching the Devils in five games in the first round, the Canes next face the Washington Capitals, the Metropolitan Divisions winners. Game 1, to be shown by ESPN, has been set for Tuesday night – the Caps, who have the home-ice advantage, will host Games 1 and 2.
Much has been made of it being the first playoff meeting between the teams since 2019, when the first-round series went to seven games. The Canes emerged victorious in a second overtime at Capital One Arena in Washington, DC, as Brock McGinn tipped a pass from Justin Williams past goalie Braden Holtby for the sudden win.
Aho was circling behind the net, just a few feet away, and raised his arms at the same time McGinn did. Chasing Aho behind the net was defenseman Dmitry Orlov, a Cup winner with the Caps in 2018 who now will try to knock his former team out of the playoffs.
Aho caused the Lenovo Center to erupt Tuesday with his power-play goal to win Game 5 in the second OT against New Jersey. He clenched his fists, bent over and let out a primal scream as he skated across the ice with his teammates in pursuit.
“Obviously, it was a great feeling, but to be able to clinch the series and move on is a great feeling,” Aho said. “It was what we were trying to accomplish in round one, to punch the ticket to round two. We were able to do that.
“It doesn’t matter which way we were able to do it. It was nice to win it in five games. It was nice to end the series at home and the crowd was unreal.”
Big cheers for Aho at home are a common thing. While bigger physically at 27 than he was at 17 – he’s now listed at 6 feet and 180 pounds – Aho always has used his speed, skill and smarts to constantly bedevil opponents.
“Sebastian’s hockey IQ has been there from the younger years,” said his father, Harri Aho, who was Karpat’s general manager. “He has not been the biggest player, ever, and he needed to use his head. In Finland, people called him professor of hockey.”
Aho now has been on seven Canes teams that have reached the second round of the playoffs and two that moved to the Eastern Conference finals. But that has been the ceiling.
In 2021, it was Aho’s tip of a Jaccob Slavin shot early in overtime that beat the Nashville Predators and ended that first-round series in six games. Now, he has a double-OT winner.
And to win a Stanley Cup?
“It would mean a ton,” Aho said. “As a hockey player, that’s been my goal, been our goal, ever since I got in the league. Then to have some of these playoff runs to kind of sniff what it might be like … obviously you don’t know until you know.”
Until you grab the Cup to give it a lift.
Of note: Andersen signs extension
The Canes have signed goaltender Frederik Andersen to a one-year, $2.75 million contract extension for the 2025-26 season.
Andersen, 35, can earn performance bonuses: playing 35+ games ($250,000), 40+ games ($250,000) and if the Canes reach the conference final and Andersen plays at least half of the club’s playoff games ($250,000).
This story was originally published May 3, 2025 at 4:25 PM.
