season

The CNNC sport correspondent and event photographer tag-teamed for the report on Tuesday’s game.

The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Ottawa Senators 2-1, winning the first game of their eight-game home stand. Hopes to make the playoffs rest heavily on this homestead performance. The big news was the return of Sebastian Aho to the lineup after missing two weeks with a concussion and a knee injury. He didn’t disappoint with a huge goal in the third period to even up the score.

”I was very excited. I’ve been waiting for this since I got hurt,” Aho said. ”It felt really good to get that goal.’’

Aho’s goal brought the crowd alive, the Hurricanes played stronger and Rask fired a power-play wrist shot from the left faceoff circle past Anderson on the goaltender’s stick side with 11:32 remaining which turned out to be the game winner.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau opened the scoring in the second period and Craig Anderson made 37 saves. Ottawa had other scoring chances hitting three posts (two in the first period). The Sens have now lost six games in a row.

”I really think we deserved to get out of this with at least one point,” coach Guy Boucher said. ”I really thought after two periods we had a chance to win this one.”

Tom Dundon, the Canes new majority team owner (66%) was concerned about the low ticket pre-sale status for this game and opened up the lower bowl and club level for fans with tickets in the upper level. Many took advantage of the offer and upgrade. A total of 11,448 attended the game, the higher concentration of fans closer to the ice was a boost for the Canes.