Hurricanes’ Hall & Aho Make Some Magic in 6-4 Win Over Canadiens

After starting the season 0-1-1 following two games at the Lenovo Center, the Carolina Hurricanes became road warriors, winning the next two against the Philadelphia Flyers and the Montreal Canadiens. They defeated the Flyers 3-2 in overtime on Saturday night (Oct. 3), then the Canadiens 6-4 on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Sebastian Aho and Taylor Hall played a key role in the Hurricanes’ win.

Leaving Centre Bell With 2 Points

Back on Aug. 15, The Hockey Writers published an article saying that since the Hurricanes won a Stanley Cup, Aho could have a career year with the pressure off his back. Well, in four games, he’s off to the best start of his career. Heading into Tuesday night’s Canadiens game, he had three goals and four points in three games, with two of the three goals coming on the power play. After the Hurricanes’ 6-4 win, he now has four goals and seven points, with three power-play goals.

Aho ended the night with a power-play goal, making it four goals in the last three games. He also had a secondary assist on the second Hall goal and the primary on the Andrei Svechnikov empty-net goal, icing the game at 6-4. After the win against the Canadiens, the Finnish forward was asked about special teams playing a key role again.

“The penalty kill was unreal. Slavo, Chatty, Jordo, Marty, those guys, especially on the five-on-three, it’s just so huge and gives us so much momentum. Obviously, we got the goal on the power play. It wasn’t the prettiest, and I wasn’t too happy about it today, but when you score a goal, it’s big, right? So, we’ll take that.”

The power play went 1-for-5, while the penalty kill went 5-for-6. While it’s good to see them winning the special teams battle, the Hurricanes are more of a 5-on-5 team. Nonetheless, special teams got the job done on a night that was considered “weird” by Hall.

Hall had a night, tallying his first two goals of the season and earning the first star honors. After finishing last season with 18 goals and 48 points in 80 games, he looks to build on his first year in Raleigh. On a night that felt “weird” with all of the penalties, the Calgary native shared his thoughts on the victory.

“It was a weird game. A lot of power plays, a lot of four-on-fours, or five-on-threes, stuff like that. I thought the penalty kill was really good, obviously. The power play got us one. It was a game that you want to come out with a win. I don’t think either side feels tremendous about their game. It’s a fun building for us to play in, and we seem to do well here, so we’ll take the two points and get home.”

They don’t ask how; they ask how many, and the Hurricanes’ six goals were enough to secure the win over the Canadiens. It got dicey after the home side made it 5-4 on an extra-attacker goal, but Svechnikov’s empty-net goal secured the win. The win moves head coach Rod Brind’Amour’s side to 2-1-1 on the season after dropping the first two games at home.

The Hurricanes return home on Thursday, Oct. 8, against the 2-2-0 Vancouver Canucks. It speaks a ton about this team not letting the first two games deter them from getting back to their system. They went on the road and took four of four points against the Flyers and Canadiens. They now have five points through four games into the 2026-27 season. Now it’s about building on that and securing the first home win of the season on Thursday.