Hurricanes ease past Bruins, extend winning streak to 5

RALEIGH, N.C. --The Carolina Hurricanes extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-1 victory against the Boston Bruins at PNC Arena on Sunday.

Sebastian Aho, Paul Stastny, Seth Jarvis and Jordan Staal scored, and Frederik Andersen made 24 saves for the Hurricanes (32-9-8), who also extended their point streak to eight games (7-0-1). Brent Burns had an assist in his 1,300th NHL game.
"We know that team is the cream of the crop, and they're lapping everybody right now," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "They played last night, (and) we're trying to catch them. We're at home (with) a good crowd. I think that's probably part of it, too. We deserved that one for sure."
Taylor Hall scored, and Linus Ullmark made 32 saves for the Bruins (38-7-5), who have lost a season-long three straight games.
Boston was coming off a 4-3 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
"I think it was their work ethic and how hard they were to play against that led to us being tired, because we didn't have the puck a lot," Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said. "We were chasing it a lot because they checked us really well, and then they protected it well in the offensive zone."
Aho gave Carolina a 1-0 lead at 10:52 of the first period. After stealing the puck from David Pastrnak at the Hurricanes' blue line, Aho skated in on a breakaway and shot low blocker side on Ullmark.

Aho has scored seven goals during a four-game goal streak.
"It's definitely fun to see it up close and see him take it to the next level," Burns said. "He's just explosive when he gets the puck. Anyone can see the confidence growing. He's just a special player."
Stastny made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 12:05 of the second period. He scored with a backhand from near the right post after Martin Necas' shot from the top of the left circle caromed to him off the end boards.
"I overplayed the shot on that one," Ullmark said. "I thought it was going to pop up on the same side. [Stastny] made a good shot, right in between the gloves.
"On a back to back like this, you've got to rely on your goaltender to make enough saves. Unfortunately, I didn't do that today."
The Hurricanes finished the game 1-for-4 on the power play. The Bruins were 0-for-6.
"We can't say we liked what we saw," Montgomery said. "We didn't generate chances."
Jarvis extended the lead to 3-0 at 1:57 of the third period when he stripped the puck from Brandon Carlo in the neutral zone, skated in on a breakaway, and deked Ullmark before lifting in a backhand.

Hall cut it to 3-1 at 3:22 with a deflection of Pavel Zacha's shot, but Staal scored a short-handed empty-net goal at 15:40 for the 4-1 final.
"The pressure down ice was awesome," Andersen said. "They didn't get good opportunities to set up until maybe in the third. That was big."
NOTES: The loss was the Bruins' first to a Metropolitan Division opponent (14-1-0). … Burns is the fourth active player to play in 1,300 games, joining Panthers forward Eric Staal (1,335), Dallas Stars defenseman Ryan Suter (1,331), and Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin (1,325). … Andersen is 5-0-0 in six starts since returning from a lower-body injury that kept him out 29 games. … Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin missed his fourth straight game with a lower-body injury.