Sebastian Aho scored twice in the second period on the way to a hat trick, helping the Carolina Hurricanes beat Chicago 5-2 on Monday night and eliminate the Blackhawks from postseason contention.

Dougie Hamilton and Martin Necas also scored for the Hurricanes, who entered this game leading the race for the Presidents' Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. They led nearly the entire way, going up 2-0 in the opening period and then getting Aho's scores to blow the game open en route to their fourth straight win.

Carolina has earned a point in 11 straight games, winning eight since clinching a third straight playoff trip.

Aho got his first goal when he buried a pass from Andrei Svechnikov - who stayed on his feet to lead a terrific charge up the middle of the ice for the 2-on-1 chance at 4:42 of the second.

Aho followed that minutes later by finding himself alone in front of the crease on the power play. That gave him time to set up and perfectly redirect the puck high past Malcolm Subban off a low pass from Hamilton.

That lifted Carolina to a 4-0 lead by midway through the period, pushed Aho's point streak to eight games and knocked Subban from the game in favor of Collin Delia.

Aho capped his night by beating Patrick Kane to a puck and scoring the empty-net putaway at 18:44 to earn the hat trick.

Ian Mitchell and Alex DeBrincat scored for Chicago, which also had a goal from Philipp Kurashev disallowed on replay review because Pius Suter impaired Alex Nedeljkovic's ability to play his crease position.

Chicago, sitting at sixth in the eight-team Central Division, has lost five straight and seven of nine to end its postseason chances.

The teams meet Tuesday in the second game of a three-game set as the Hurricanes close their home schedule.