Aho scores twice at home in Helsinki as Hurricanes beat Kraken 4-1 on Hall's 1,000th night
Sebastian Aho picked the perfect stage. Playing in his home country, the Finnish centre scored twice as the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Seattle Kraken 4-1 at Helsinki's Veikkaus Arena on Thursday, opening the NHL Global Series Finland on the night Taylor Hall played his 1,000th game.
How it unfolded
Ehlers opened the scoring with a wrist shot from range at 11:44 of the first period, and Seattle's goaltender-interference challenge failed, the Hurricanes' recap said. On the resulting power play, Aho made it 2-0 from a back-door pass by Jackson Blake.
Välimäki added the third in the second period off a Logan Stankoven faceoff win. Aho completed his night at 11:41 of the third, one-timing a setup from Andrei Svechnikov and K'Andre Miller.
Seattle scored with 6:45 to go. Brandon Bussi made 12 saves on 13 shots for his second straight win.
Aho climbs the record book
Aho's 321st and 322nd career goals tied him with Eric Staal for the second-most in franchise history, behind only Ron Francis with 382. They also moved him past Olli Jokinen into fourth among Finnish players in NHL history for goals, the club said.
| Milestone | Detail |
|---|---|
| Franchise goals | 322, tied with Eric Staal (Francis leads with 382) |
| Finnish NHL goal scorers | Fourth, passing Olli Jokinen (321) |
| Power-play goals among Finns | 80, seventh, passing Saku Koivu (79) |
Source: Carolina Hurricanes recap.
Välimäki's goal made it only the second time Finnish teammates have both scored in an NHL regular-season game played in Finland.
Hall's long road to Helsinki
Hall made his NHL debut for Edmonton on Oct. 7, 2010, NHL.com noted. On that same day the Hurricanes played their first game outside North America, against Minnesota in Helsinki.
Injuries delayed his milestone and scrambled plans for family and friends to fly in. Hall, 34, won his first Stanley Cup with Carolina last season, scoring 19 points in 19 playoff games.
I would've loved to not miss those games because it kind of messed up everything that we had planned, but this is a nice consolation.
Streaks rolling on
Blake's point streak reached a career-best 10 games with his assist on Aho's first goal, and Stankoven extended his own run to six games. The first-place Hurricanes now have one Helsinki win in the bag.