Hurricanes hand Bruins their third loss in a row

Sebastian Aho scored a goal for the fourth straight game and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins 4-1 on Sunday in a matchup of the teams with the two best records in the NHL.

Paul Stastny scored on a second-period power play, Seth Jarvis posted a goal in the third, and Jordan Staal added a short-handed emptynetter as the Hurricanes won their fifth game in a row and extended their points streak to eight games (7-0-1).

Frederik Andersen, playing for the first time since he left Wednesday night’s game in Dallas with an upper-body injury, made 24 saves.

Pavel Zacha scored for the Bruins, who lead the NHL with 81 points but have lost three games in a row for the first time this season. Linus Ullmark stopped 32 shots.

Aho stole the puck at his defensive blue line took off on a breakaway for his 21st goal of the season with 9:08 left in the first. He has seven goals during his scoring streak.

After Carolina’s four successful penalty kills through 30 minutes, the Hurricanes scored on a power play as Stastny converted from in front of the net with 7:55 left in the second. It was his fourth.

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Maple Leafs’ 5, Capitals 1:

Morgan Rielly’s first goal of the season stood up as the winner as host Toronto dominated Washington.

Michael Bunting, with a goal and an assist, William Nylander, Pierre Engvall and Zach AstonReese provided the rest of the offence for Toronto. Ilya Samsonov made 23 saves in his sixth straight start — and seventh consecutive appearance.

Nicklas Backstrom scored the first goal for Washington. Darcy Kuemper allowed four goals on 20 shots before being replaced by Charlie Lindgren. The Capitals backup finished with six stops.

Leafs captain John Tavares, who played the 1,000th regular-season game of his NHL career, was honored by the team with a ceremony before a rare 5 p.m. puck drop.