Hurricanes overcome barrage of penalties, beat the Panthers to stay in 1st
Despite going shorthanded nine times, the Hurricanes beat the Panthers 4-2 to remain in first place in the Central Division.
By Brett Finger@brettfinger
Carolina had a season-high nine penalty kills, and they were successful on all but one of them.
With the win, the Hurricanes improved to 6-0-1 on the season against the Panthers. They’ll also stay put atop the Central Division. They have a two-point lead on Florida with two games in hand.
Aho finished the game with a pair of shorthanded goals, giving him 12 career shorties and putting him in second place on the franchise leaderboard in that category. Only Eric Staal has scored more shorthanded goals for the Hurricanes.
Necas had a three-assist night. Two were while shorthanded.
Nedeljkovic starred in the third period, shutting the door time and again on the Panthers. He made 32 saves on 34 shots, none more important than his sprawling stop on Jonathan Huberdeau in a 3-2 game in the third period.
These two teams will play again in what will surely be another stressful affair on Saturday night. It will be their final of eight meetings in the regular season.
Hurricanes overcome barrage of penalties, beat the Panthers to stay in first place