Bruins' Eight-Game Point Streak Ends in Raleigh as Aho Beats Swayman in the Third and Carolina Wins 2-1

The measuring-stick game measured something, just not what Boston wanted. The Hurricanes beat the Bruins 2-1 on Tuesday night at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, ending Boston's eight-game point streak, according to NHL.com. Sebastian Aho scored the winner at 10:19 of the third period, and Pyotr Kochetkov won his eighth straight start to open the season.

It started great. At 1:31 of the first, on the power play, David Pastrnak made a backhand pass to Elias Lindholm, who spun in the left circle and fed Pavel Zacha at the right post for a tap-in, NHL.com reported. One-nothing Bruins, and the building got quiet.

Then Carolina just kept coming. Jackson Blake tied it at 19:08 of the first. Nikolaj Ehlers stripped the puck from Frederic Brunet below the goal line on the forecheck and passed to Blake, who came out of the left corner and slid it around Jeremy Swayman's left pad with Swayman sprawled. The winner was a rush play: William Carrier tipped a Andrei Svechnikov pass to Aho, who reached to his backhand and chipped it under Swayman's blocker.

Here's the number: Kochetkov made 14 saves. That means Boston put 15 shots on goal in 60 minutes against the defending champs. Swayman made 28. You don't win many games where the other goalie sees half as much rubber as yours, no matter how good the start is.

Boston did get chances late. Carolina killed two minor penalties in the final 4:41 of the third, per NHL.com. "It's never fun to kill penalties, especially against a power play like that late in the game," Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. Kochetkov, asked about his streak, shrugged: "It's just my job, I don't know what to say."

Marco Sturm wasn't panicking, and I don't think he should. "Overall, I didn't mind our game," the Bruins coach said. "We had a good jump right away from the start. There's small details, puck management, that they did just a little bit better than us." Zacha said almost the same thing: "A lot of 1-on-1 battles, and I think we did pretty good for most of the game. But then, in the end, they were able to score and we weren't."

The standings still look good. The Bruins are 9-3-1 after going 7-0-1 in the previous eight, according to NHL.com. Carolina is 10-2-2 and on a four-game point streak. Carolina also lost Taylor Hall again; he left the morning skate with a new injury and will "be out for a little bit," coach Rod Brind'Amour said.

Next for Boston is St. Louis on Thursday at 8 p.m. ET at Enterprise Center, the second game of the road trip, according to the Bruins' practice report. Dez's take: one-goal road loss to the best team in the league is fine. Fifteen shots is not. If the Bruins want to be in Carolina's tier, the offense has to show up after the first two minutes.