VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Andrei Svechnikov scored his seventh goal of the season and the Carolina Hurricanes handed the winless Vancouver Canucks their seventh straight loss, 3-2 Monday night.
Sebastian Aho and Jesper Fast also scored for the Hurricanes, and Brent Burns had two assists. Frederik Andersen had 14 saves.
“You’ve got to have your top guys contributing nightly or it’s gonna be hard,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “They come to play every game this year. I’m real proud of the group, honestly.
“I know it’s early in the year, but we really come out hard in every game and tonight was tough sledding, I felt like we were in control but it was a tight game and the guys just keep working and we got the two points.”
J.T. Miller scored two goals for the Canucks (0-5-2), who are the only NHL team without a win. Thatcher Demko stopped 36 shots.
“Night in and night out, losing, it takes a toll on you mentally, physically, trying to come from behind the last couple games,” Canucks captain Bo Horvat said. “It’s frustrating right now, obviously, and you’ve got to stay optimistic. You can’t just keep beating yourself up or keep feeling sorry for yourself because it’s just gonna get worse if you do that. So we’ve just got to get ready for the next game.”
Tied 1-1 since midway through the first period, Carolina scored twice early in the third to take control.
In the opening minute of the period, Seth Jarvis got a partial breakaway and fired a shot at Demko. The goalie made the stop but couldn’t corral the puck, leaving it unattended in the blue paint. Aho sprinted in and popped it into the yawning net to give the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead at 50 seconds.
The goal extended Aho’s point streak to five games, with four goals and five assists in the stretch.
“He’s elite. He’s an elite player,” Jarvis said of Aho. “You expect nothing less from them and it’s nice to see to see him getting production and scoring a lot and that only helps our team win. So any time he’s having a good night it usually results in wins.”
Just 37 seconds later, Fast registered his first of the season when a pass from Jordan Staal caromed off his skate into Vancouver’s net to make it 3-1.
The Canucks pulled to 3-2 midway through the period after the puck hit Hurricanes forward Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Miller picked it up, firing a quick one-timer past Andersen for his second goal of the game.
Vancouver called a 30-second timeout with 2:20 left, then pulled Demko in favor of an extra skater but couldn’t get the tying score.
The Canucks were 1 for 2 on the power play while the Hurricanes went 1 for 3.
Carolina opened the scoring early in the first after Vancouver’s Dakota Joshua was called for interference on Paul Stastny. It took the Hurricanes just 11 seconds to score on the man advantage as Necas sent a cross-ice pass to Svechnikov and the Russian unleashed a one-timer that beat Demko for a power-play goal at 6:06.
Svechnikov’s goal tied him with Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos for the NHL lead at seven apiece.
Carolina briefly appeared to double its lead midway through the period when Derek Stepan batted a puck in over Demko’s pad. Officials quickly disallowed the goal, citing goalie interference by Stastny, whose skate was in the blue paint. The Hurricanes challenged the call but a video review upheld the ruling and Carolina was handed a delay-of-game penalty.
Vancouver capitalized with Elias Pettersson moving the puck behind the net and whipping it up to Horvat. The captain tapped it across the crease to Miller and he tapped it in to tie the score at 1-1 with 7 1/2 minutes left.
THE FINAL MELTDOWN
Vancouver has been outscored 15-2 in the third period over their first seven games of the season.
“I’m not a psychiatrist,” Canucks coach Bruce Boudreau said. “I mean, sometimes coaches have to be. But I think maybe … they don’t want to make the mistake, to be the one that loses the game. But in effect when you’re doing that, that’s what you do. You become the player that makes the mistake because you don’t play forward, you’re playing waiting.”
Hurricanes: Host the New York Islanders on Friday night.
Canucks: At Seattle on Thursday night before returning for a four-game homestand.
