Aho’s 2-point night leads Hurricanes past Canucks 5-3

Sebastian Aho had a goal and an assist, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Vancouver Canucks 5-3 on Tuesday night for their third straight win.

Warren Foegele scored an important insurance goal in the third period, Andrei Svechnikov, Jordan Staal and Brett Pesce also scored and Teuvo Teravainen had two assists.

They helped the Eastern Conference-leading Hurricanes improve to 3-0-1 — their best start since the move from Hartford in 1997 — under new coach and former team captain Rod Brind’Amour. They earned points in their first four games for the first time since 1994-95, when they were still the Whalers and opened 4-0-1.

Sven Baertschi had two goals and an assist, and Bo Horvat scored on the power play for rebuilding Vancouver, which has lost the first two games of its six-game trip.

Curtis McElhinney made 22 saves for the Hurricanes while Jacob Markstrom stopped 28 shots for the Canucks in a game in which the first seven goals were scored in the opening 23 minutes, 24 seconds and the defenses tightened up before Foegele scored with 6:12 left to restore Carolina’s two-goal advantage.

Aho, who has points in all four games, put Carolina up 3-1 after taking a slick touch pass from Micheal Ferland and beating Markstrom from close range with 2:09 left in the first.

After Horvat pulled the Canucks within a goal in the opening minute of the second period, Svechnikov restored the two-goal lead when he crashed the net and stuffed in a rebound — giving the rookie points in three of his four career games.

Baertschi’s first goal tied it at 1 at 6:12 after a long pass from Alexander Edler set up a partial breakaway chance. His second came on the power play at 3:24 of the second and pulled the Canucks to 4-3, capping a furious stretch in which the teams combined for three goals in a span of 2:38.

NOTES: Vancouver rookie C Elias Pettersson, who assisted on Baertschi’s second goal, has six points in his first three games. … D Haydn Fleury was in the Carolina lineup for the first time after he was a healthy scratch in each of first three games. Trevor van Riemsdyk was scratched instead. … LW Tim Schaller and D Ben Hutton made their season debuts for Vancouver.

UP NEXT

Canucks: Continue their six-game road swing Thursday night at Tampa Bay.

Hurricanes: Begin a three-game road trip Saturday night at Minnesota.