RALEIGH, N.C. — Carolina Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho exited briefly to go to the locker room after taking a puck to the face that led directly to the New York Islanders‘ second goal on Tuesday night.
Aho was jostling for position with Brock Nelson to the right of the goal when Pierre Engvall flipped a shot into traffic in Game 5 of the first-round playoff series. The puck popped Aho near the mouth, sending him down to the ice.
But Nelson managed to bat the puck out of the air as it fell and past Antti Raanta for a 2-0 lead at 3:16 of the second. Aho was bent over as he skated back to the bench, then went right to the tunnel.
Aho returned to the bench midway through the period.
The Hurricanes are without multiple top-producing forwards, including Andrei Svechnikov to a season-ending knee injury and Teuvo Teravainen to a broken hand in Game 2. Carolina leads the best-of-seven series 3-1 and is trying to become the first team to advance.
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