The Carolina Hurricanes snapped their four-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
Sebastian Aho led the way with a two goal, three point performance and Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 31 of 32 in a confident outing. Martin Necas and Seth Jarvis also picked up goals in the win.
After the game, Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour along with Aho, Seth Jarvis and Brady Skjei spoke with the media in Ottawa. Here's what they had to say:
Rod Brind'Amour
On the biggest differences in the game: We were just a little more dialed in. It's such a fine line between winning and losing. Doing the little things right, which I think we did here tonight for the most part, and then you get pucks to go in. It's just weird how that works. Our goalie was great tonight. [Kochetkov] was obviously... the third period in the game was kind of out of hand. We kind of gave up too much there, but he held us in there with some good saves and then special teams was big. Penalty kill was huge, took some bad penalties there, and then the power play too was good. All around, it's what we needed.
On the penalty kill: It was huge. There was a point there where we were down one, and we took a couple of penalties. Game could have gone the other way quickly. That's where that comes in huge. We made some saves and blocked a lot of shots. That extra little 1% that we gave tonight in the first two periods was the difference.
On the second period: Special teams was the difference obviously. That's what I'm talking about in this game. One little bounce one way or another and the game flips, or one save or not save. We got the saves tonight.
On Kochetkov: He looked real confident. He is a confident kid, we know that, but he really looked like he was dialed in. Even the grade-As looked kind of normal. That's when you know a goalie's dialed in. They had a bunch of chances, especially in the third period, and he was on it.
On the kind of tone this game can set moving forward: It's hard to say. You have to build off of that momentum a little bit and hopefully get some good vibes off of it. We got a bunch of banged up guys right now so that's not good, but let's just take a breath for a night here and then get ready for tomorrow.
Sebastian Aho
On the win: It's been a tough road trip for us so it feels good to get back in the win column.
On special teams: It was everything. Obviously our goalie played a hell of a game, but special teams were huge and with the goalie, were the reason we won.
On the mindset coming in: Obviously we try to win every night and prepare as much as we can and just do our jobs, but obviously it hasn't gone our way. There was extra motivation for this one, for sure.
On the relief that the win provides: We just have to build off of this. Getting special teams going and all that. Obviously we're not happy with the way we've played lately and this was definitely a step in the right direction. Just have to keep going.
On Kochetkov: It was huge. Obviously early on they got a power play and they got some good looks, but he was just on it today. Unreal game by him. It's big in games like this.
On building energy off of Kochetkov's big saves: He made some huge saves. He kept us in the game, especially early. Not a lot of rebounds, he froze pucks pretty well. Played pretty well with his stick as well. Helped get the puck up with the D. Just a great game by him and hopefully he can build some confidence off of this.
Seth Jarvis
On snapping the four-game losing streak: It felt nice. That was a good one.
On it being the kind of game the team needed: 100%. I think our effort has been there, but our execution hasn't. There's been a lot of inconsistencies that we've had. I think tonight, everything kind of fell into place and clicked. The power play makes a huge difference when we can score multiple times. It really kills the momentum for them.
On the second period: It was huge. We want to come out flying. We knew being tied in this build is good, but we had some work to do and I think we had a really good second and we were able to shut it down in the third and come out with the win.
On preparing for this game: I'm sure you can imagine what was said. There was a lot said over the whole road trip and I mean it's just nice to get a win and get off that kind of skid. We've been talking a lot so it's nice to see it put into action.
On Kochetkov: That flying poke check was sweet. I loved that. He's crazy as you can tell from him jawing at Tkachuk after. Everyone loves that, we love him and he did a great job tonight.
On building confidence off of his game: It's huge anytime you can get a big save. In pivotal moments. If that penalty shot goes in, who knows what could happen. It's nice to get those saves when you need them and we got them tonight.
Brady Skjei
On the game's pivotal moments: Special teams was obviously really strong tonight. That's a huge part of the game and then I'd probably say goaltending was the other one. [Kochetkov] played amazing tonight and we cashed in on two power plays and the penalty kill was good. If that's what happens, you usually get a good result.
On Kochetkov: We have confidence in all of our goalies and tonight [Kochetkov] had some huge saves on some grade-A chances. He just looked very calm back there. A couple where he didn't even go down. Just caught them right in his glove. That's obviously a good sign and just have to keep that going.
On the Tkachuk/Kochetkov facedown: [Kochetkov] is obviously a fiery goaltender and that's what makes him good. I'm not exactly sure what happened there though.
On building off this game: We have a good feeling in the locker room. These last couple days have been tough, there's no way around that. We want to finish this road trip with a couple wins. That would be huge. We have a big one in Detroit and we'll try to salvage a few points on this trip. It will be a good game and we're excited.