By Canadian Press

Necas produces on birthday as Hurricanes beat Canucks 4-1

Jan 15, 2022 | 2:38 PM

RALEIGH, N.C. — Martin Necas had a goal and an assist on his 23rd birthday and the Carolina Hurricanes stopped a two-game skid by beating the Vancouver Canucks 4-1 on Saturday.

Vincent Trocheck also had a goal and an assist for the Hurricanes, who regained their scoring touch after being shut out for the first time this season two nights earlier.

Sebastian Aho and Steven Lorentz had the other Carolina goals and Andrei Svechnikov posted two assists. Frederik Andersen made 30 saves.

Bo Horvat scored in the first period for Vancouver, which has lost the first three games of a five-game trip. Thatcher Demko stopped 29 shots.

Aho opened the scoring with his team-leading 16th goal. It was his first tally in more than a month because he missed three games and then hadn’t scored in five games since returning.

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Trocheck’s first goal in seven games gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead just over a minute into the second period.

Necas produced his goal by coming down the right side and firing the puck past Demko. It gave Carolina 3-1 lead less than five minutes into the second period and was his 100th career point.

NOT NOW

The Hurricanes were 5-for-5 on penalty killing. That stretches the string of successful kills of opposing power plays to 35 for the third-longest streak in franchise history.

Carolina killed off three penalties in the first period. Meanwhile, the Canucks are a combined 0-for-12 on power plays in their last three games.

COMING AND GOING

Hurricanes left winger Jordan Martinook was back from an injury, playing for the first time since Dec. 2.

Carolina had defenseman Joey Keane in the lineup for the first time this season. It was his second career NHL game. Defenseman Jaccob Slavin missed his second game this week because he’s in the COVID-19 protocol.

Before the game, Canucks backup goalie Jaroslav Halak was placed on the COVID-19 list. Spencer Martin was added to the active roster from the taxi squad.

UP NEXT

Canucks: At Washington on Sunday.

Hurricanes: At Boston on Tuesday night.

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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports 

Bob Sutton, The Associated Press