Hurricanes top Blackhawks for fourth straight win

CHICAGO -- Jackson Blake and Jordan Martinook each had a goal and an assist, and the Carolina Hurricanes won their fourth straight game, 5-2 against the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on Saturday.

Mark Jankowski scored for the third straight game, and Mike Reilly had two assists for the Hurricanes (4-1-1). Brandon Bussi made 24 saves.

“It’s good,” said forward Sebastian Aho, who scored a short-handed goal in the second period. “I think we’ve definitely, after the first couple of games, we got to our game. Just play Hurricanes hockey, and that usually gives you a chance to win. Just keep on working.”

Roman Kantserov scored his first NHL goal, and Spencer Knight made 34 saves for the Blackhawks (1-5-0), who have lost two in a row.

“There were moments of being pretty frustrated in the opening trip,” said Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill, referring to his team’s 0-3-0 start to the season. “Do I think frustration builds when you haven’t won and when you’re not having enough success? Of course, it does. Do I think that you have to really combat the feeling of when you get scored on, that it’s the end of the world? Of course you do.

“Those are the challenges that we’re going to have to face. But I’m going to tell you right now, I have absolute 100 percent belief in this group. One-hundred percent. And this group is going to win. I can’t tell you if we’re going to start winning Tuesday, next week, a year from now, I have no idea when it’s going to be, but this group’s going to win, 100 percent.”

Jankowski gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead on a breakaway at 19:03 of the first period. Jankowski moved in on Knight after taking a pass from Jesperi Kotkaniemi at the blue line and went backhand to forehand to score.

Aho’s short-handed goal increased Carolina’s lead to 2-0 at 2:09 of the second period. Aho skated into the offensive zone, stopped in the slot and waited for Blackhawks defenseman Bowen Byram to slide past before firing a wrist shot past Knight. Byram was playing without his stick, which had broken. It was Aho’s fifth goal of the season.

“Well, it’s probably a backbreaker,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour of the short-handed goal. “(The Blackhawks are) expecting to maybe get one and get back in the game, and it goes the other way. It kind of deflates the group. Certainly for us, it put us in a good spot.

“It was a pretty nifty little play, understanding, too, the situation with the guy without a stick. That’s just the hockey sense. And then the shot to finish it off. That was a big point of the game.”

Blake’s first goal of the season made it 3-0 at 3:28. Blake tapped the puck into the net from in front after taking a quick feed from Logan Stankoven at the goal line.

Kantserov’s first NHL goal made it 3-1 at 4:40. Kantserov moved in on a breakaway and shot the puck past Bussi’s glove for the unassisted goal after he picked up the puck near the Chicago blue line.

Taylor Hall restored the Hurricanes’ three-goal lead at 4-1 at 6:05 when he scored on a one-timer from the slot after taking a pass from Blake at the bottom of the left face-off circle.

“Just ‘Blakey’, ‘Stanky’ and I, we do a really good job of finding the slot,” Hall said. “If we ever get a puck below the goal line in the offensive zone, the first look is the slot. If teams cover that, then something else opens up.”

Martinook scored on a backhand from the slot at 5:00 of the third period to make it 5-1.

Oliver Moore scored at 14:14 when he moved in from the right circle and put the puck over Bussi's shoulder for the 5-2 final.

NOTES: The Hurricanes scored five or more goals in three consecutive games for the first time since a three-game stretch from Oct. 7-13, 2018. The longest streak by the team is six games, which spanned Nov. 23 to Dec. 7, 1985. … Kantserov, selected in the second round (No. 44) by Chicago in the 2023 NHL Draft, is playing in his first NHL season after leading the Kontinental Hockey League with 36 goals last season.