Brock Nelson had two goals, the Hurricanes couldn’t get any production outside of the top line, and Frederik Andersen’s best effort in a while went for not as the best team in the NHL Colorado Avalanche came back from a 3-1 deficit in the third to defeat the Carolina Hurricanes 5-3.
Both teams played a level of game that was expected with a squad that will likely be the runaway winner of the President’s Trophy and one of the best in the East.
The game got off to a quick start on both sides, as shades
of the defensive lapses and poor neutral zone play plagued the team at the start. Frederick Andersen, however, ended stopped all 15 Colorado shots in the first as the Canes started to find their game as it went on. Finally, near the end of the first the Hurricanes were on the penalty kill when the defense was able to force the puck past the blue line to a waiting Aho. He was all alone and scored a beautiful goal deking out starter Scott Wedgewood and sliding the puck under his legs to give Carolina a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission
Andersen was the biggest reason Carolina had the lead after two, as he made multiple saves on good chances for Colorado, to the point where the crowd was pushing him on.
Colorado though showed why they are the best in the league just 1:47 into the second. The Canes actually played solid defense behind Andersen with Chatfield pinning Nathan MacKinnon. MacKinnon, though was able to force it to Gabriel Landeskog who overpowered Jordan Staal for a tough wraparound by Andersen. Unlike other games, though, the Canes didn’t get down and Andersen would make a couple more saves. Eventually, that lead to Colorado getting called for interference and the third power play of the night for the Canes. Each power play got better throughout the night and on what would be their last one, the Canes kept possession for Nickolaj Ehlers to bang it past Wedgewood and restore the Canes lead.
Just two minutes later Aho again was able to obtain the puck on a breakaway at center ice, but this time fed it to a streaking Andrei Svechnikov who just powered it by Wedgewood giving the Canes a 3-1 lead.
Unfortunately that would be the high point for the Canes, as they would get called for the next three penalties. The kill was good enough to knock out the one in the second leaving the Avalanche visibly frustrated. Unfortunately when you give this team too many chances, they make you pay and it went bad in a hurry for Carolina. During and after the game you could tell Rod Brind’Amour did not agree with how the calls went, but ultimately you do have to kill penalties.
Just :11 into the third Svechnikov was called for tripping, and on the fourth power play try of the night Brock Nelson made them pay at the net getting the Avs to within one. Then just :30 later the bane of the Canes’ existence recently—poor passes and neutral zone turnovers—hit again, as former Cane Jack Drury intercepted a Joel Nystrom pass and skated it right to Andersen, blasting it by him to knot the score at three. Rod Brind’Amour called his timeout and it did seem to settle the Canes for a bit until the most controversial moment of the game.
While Ehlers was going for the puck in the corner by Wedgewood, Devon Toews started going down to the ice. There was some light contact to the leg but replays clearly showed that Toews was already going down when contact happened. Unfortunately Toews went into the boards and had to be helped, and that injury led to a tripping call that the crowd in the Lenovo Center didn’t agree with. The Canes then followed that up with poor coverage on the Penalty Kill, and Brock Nelson converted on a tic-tac-toe play from Cale Makar and MacKinnon to give the Avs the lead they wouldn’t surrender. MacKinnon would get a cheap 35th on the year he was going in all alone at the empty net and was tripped up by Shayne Gostisbehere, returning for the first time since the win over Detroit.
Anderesen ended the night making 30 saves on 34 shots, again his best effort in a while and wasn’t the one to blame for the loss as several of the goals were off either strong plays by the Avs or just poor plays by the players in front of him. He held firm as Colorado tried to extend the lead late.
Wedgewood, playing his first game since Mackenzie Blackwood was put on IR and since being left off Team Canada, made 25 saves but most importantly ten in the third period as the defense in front of him tightened.
All of the scoring for Carolina came from the top three of Aho, Svechnikov, and Ehlers. It showed just how deep Colorado is in that they completely shut out the rest of the players on the ice, and Jordan Staal was just 29% from the faceoff dot.
Carolina has to shake this one off as they immediately head up to New Jersey to face off against the Devils Sunday Night. Brandon Bussi will look to shake off his first poor start as a Hurricane.
