By JAY COHEN

AP Sports Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — Jesper Fast and Martin Necas scored 3:09 apart in the third period, and the undefeated Carolina Hurricanes topped the Chicago Blackhawks 4-3 on Wednesday night.

Derek Stepan had a goal and an assist as Carolina matched a franchise record with its ninth straight victory. Seth Jarvis added his first career goal, and Frederik Andersen made 27 saves in the opener of a challenging three-game trip.

At 9-0, the Hurricanes moved into a tie with the 2015-16 Montreal Canadiens for the NHL’s third-longest win streak to begin a season. Next up is a trip to Florida for a Saturday matchup with the Panthers, who are 8-0-1 heading into their game against Washington tonight.

Alex DeBrincat had two goals for Chicago, which lost 6-3 at Carolina on Friday night. Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 stops.

The Blackhawks led 3-2 after two, but the Hurricanes tied it 17 seconds into the third. After Chicago defenseman Jake McCabe turned it over, Andrei Svechnikov made a nice pass to Fast in the middle and he beat Fleury for his fourth of the season.

Necas then put the Hurricanes ahead to stay on a shot from the right circle that trickled past Fleury for his second at 3:26.
Chicago had several chances to tie down the stretch, but Andersen kept Carolina in front. The Hurricanes killed off three penalties in the third, including a double minor on Ethan Bear for high-sticking.

Kane snapped a 1-all tie when he redirected Riley Stillman’s point shot through Andersen’s legs 2:49 into the second. Kane also had three goals and an assist in Monday night’s 5-1 victory over Ottawa in his first game back after being sidelined by COVID-19.

DeBrincat then finished a pretty sequence for Chicago, making it 3-1 at 8:24. A falling Mike Hardman passed backward to Phillipp Kurashev, who set up DeBrincat’s team-high sixth goal with a slick backhand pass.

The Hurricanes got one back when Jarvis took advantage of a bad pinch by Blackhawks defenseman Erik Gustafsson. Jarvis, the No. 13 overall pick in last year’s NHL draft, skated right by Gustafsson and beat Fleury on the breakaway at 12:50.

COVID-19

Stillman and forward Jujhar Khaira returned to Chicago’s lineup after being sidelined by COVID-19. Forward Henrik Borgstrom was removed from the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol on Wednesday, but didn’t play against Carolina.

While Borgstrom cleared protocol, Chicago added forward Tyler Johnson and defenseman Isaak Phillips to its COVID-19 protocol list.

UP NEXT

Hurricanes: At the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

Blackhawks: At the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night.
___
Jay Cohen can be reached at https://twitter.com/jcohenap
___
More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports