Sebastian Aho and the Carolina Hurricanes are one win away from being the first time to advance to the conference finals in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs — but the star forward has much higher aspirations ahead of an elimination game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.

“This is a great opportunity to close the series and move on,” Sebastian Aho explained, per Tom Gulitti of NHL.com. “But getting [to the conference final] is not our goal. It's to be the last team standing. That's been our long goal for a while now and we don't want to look too far ahead.”

The Hurricanes certainly had Stanley Cup aspirations after a fantastic regular season that culminated in the Metropolitan Division crown, but after losing stars Andrei Svechnikov, Max Pacioretty and Teuvo Teravainen to injuries, the road seemed a lot longer.

But Carolina has had multiple players step up, including Jordan Martinook, who has an incredible 10 points in four games after not scoring a single point in the team's six-game first-round win over the New York Islanders.

On Thursday night, Carolina can advance to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time since 2019, when they were swept by the Boston Bruins, and that fact is not lost on Aho.

“It's all about tonight. It's the playoffs. Anything can happen,” Aho said, per Gulitti. “They're going to bring their best effort and we need to bring ours too and not think of anything else but trying to take care of business tonight.”

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PNC Arena in Raleigh is sure to be rocking after the Hurricanes blew out the Devils 6-1 in Newark, NJ in Game 4 on Tuesday. Carolina has outscored New Jersey 17-3 in their three victories to open up a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.

The Hurricanes have reached the Eastern Conference Final four times in the franchise's history, and won two of them, most memorably in 2006 when they won their lone Stanley Cup championship.

With the Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche and Boston Bruins all out, Sebastian Aho and the Hurricanes have a glowing opportunity to make a run again in 2023.