Sebastian Aho scored a minute into overtime to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-3 victory as the Chicago Blackhawks once again squandered an early lead.
BANG 💥
Sebastian Aho wins it for the @Canes with his fourth @Energizer OT winner of the season! pic.twitter.com/8Okm7qfVmJ
— NHL (@NHL) January 21, 2025
The Blackhawks struck first when Philipp Kurashev took a Seth Jones pass and flipped the puck past Hurricanes’ goaltender Fredrik Andersen, who was appearing in his 500th career game. He became the first Danish goaltender to achieve that feat and the seventh player overall.
Andersen, who came off the injured list last Friday, saw his first action since Oct. 26.
The Blackhawks extended their lead on a Tyler Bertuzzi goal until Seth Jarvis and Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored to pull the Hurricanes even. Jaccob Slavin factored on both Carolina goals to record his 24th multi-assist game with the Hurricanes and moved into a tie with Justin Faulk for the third most by a defenseman in franchise history.
Ryan Donato scored with less than a minute left in the second period to give the Blackhawks the lead heading into the second intermission.
Jordan Staal scooped up the puck during a pile-up around the net, tied the score with just over six minutes left in the third period, and picked up his 700th career point.
Staal also played in his 1,300th NHL game tonight. He is just the eighth active player to reach the milestone, joining Ryan Suter, Brent Burns, Alex Ovechkin, Anze Kopitar, Corey Perry, Sidney Crosby, and Marc-Édouard Vlasic. He is the 74th player in NHL history to reach the milestone and the first player from the 2006 Draft class.
Martin Necas made a nice cross-ice pass to set Aho up for the game-winning goal, his fourth overtime winner this season.
