Hurricanes hand Blackhawks 21st straight loss on road

RALEIGH, N.C. -- Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist for the Carolina Hurricanes, who handed the Chicago Blackhawks their 21st straight loss on the road with a 6-3 win at PNC Arena on Monday.

Martin Necas also had a goal and an assist, and Michael Bunting, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Brent Burns and Jordan Martinook scored for the Hurricanes (33-17-5), who have won three in a row and five of their past six. Spencer Martin made 14 saves.

“Tonight was really good because I thought for two periods we played really well,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Connor Bedard had a goal and two assists for the Blackhawks (15-38-3), who have not won on the road since Nov. 9 (0-20-1) and are 1-8-1 in their past 10 games overall. Petr Mrazek made 36 saves.

“We know that they come at you at all times, all four lines. Their [defense] presses,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “We didn’t handle it well. We didn’t have the puck hardly at all in the first half of the game. It’s hard to create anything offensively, and [there was] way too much energy wasted defensively.”

Martin, who was acquired off waivers from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Jan. 19, was sharp in his third straight start for the Hurricanes. He made a blocker save on Ryan Donato during an extended 5-on-3 power play for Chicago early in the first period before stopping Joey Anderson with a poke check on a breakaway at 10:18.

“It’s a great feeling, but I still feel like I have a lot to prove,” Martin said. “It’s been a special opportunity to play with a team like this. The way they’ve brought me into this locker room is really building my confidence as well.”

Bunting gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 11:45 of the first off a feed from Necas, who then made it 2-0 at 1:59 of the second period by driving the slot and flipping a wrist shot past Mrazek.

Kotkaniemi extended the lead to 3-0 at 8:22 with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle. The goal was his first since Dec. 19 (23 games).

“It felt good. It’s been a while. First goal this year,” Kotkaniemi said. “I just try to think more in a simple way, the little things, but I feel the goals are going to come as long as you work hard and do the simple things right.”

Aho made it 4-0 at 10:52 with a fadeaway wrist shot after skating around the net.

“I was thinking about wrapping it, but I ended up holding onto it,” Aho said. “Then I got a little space there and put it in.”

Nick Foligno made it 4-1 at 15:23 on a spinning backhand from the left circle.

“When you get a team like them that just comes at you, you get caught if you overthink it,” Foligno said. “You look slow, you look lethargic. That’s what happened. Then all of a sudden in the third, where we said, ‘Let’s forget about it and go play’, our game comes to life because of it.”

Burns pushed it to 5-1 at 2:34 of the third period, one-timing a rebound from a sharp angle on the power play.

Bedard made it 5-2 at 7:00, tapping in a pass from Philipp Kurashev at the right post on the power play. Tyler Johnson then cut it to 5-3 at 9:08 when he redirected in a pass from Bedard for another power-play goal.

“I thought we did a nice job on [Bedard] actually, and he still gets on the score sheet,” Brind’Amour said. “He’s super skilled and he knows how to get his ice and find his teammates. Whoever gets to play with him is pretty fortunate.”

Martinook scored an empty-net goal with 1:49 remaining for the 6-3 final.

NOTES: Bedard has six points (two goals, four assists) during a three-game point streak. He has eight multipoint games this season, passing Eddie Olczyk for the most by an 18-year-old in Blackhawks history. He also joined Patrick Kane (two) as the only 18-year-olds in franchise history to record multiple three-point games. … Hurricanes defenseman Jalen Chatfield was a late scratch with an upper-body injury. … Aho has scored at least 20 goals in each of his eight NHL seasons seasons. … The Hurricanes have held their opponents to fewer than 20 shots seven times in the past 17 games.