The Carolina Hurricanes won their third game in a row with a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche Friday night at PNC Arena.
The Hurricanes (5-6-0) scored a trio of highlight reel goals while goaltender Cam Ward once again was stellar in net, stopping 30 of 32 shots on goal.
Playing their second game in as many nights, the Hurricanes got off to a surprisingly quick start, producing some quality scoring chances while spending the majority of the first few minutes in the Avalanche (3-6-1) zone.
The Canes received their first man advantage opportunity at the end of the first period and looked lost for the majority of it, spending as much time in their own end as they did in Colorado’s.
With leftover power play time to begin the second period, defenseman Justin Faulk appeared to temporarily end the Canes power play woes on a slapshot from the point. The puck hit the inside of the crossbar and landed on the goal line where a portion – not all – of it crossed the goal line, leading to a no goal ruling.
The Avs got on the board first thanks to a lucky break in the second period. Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon attempted a shot on goal that deflected off of a player in front of Ward and right to forward Alex Tanguay in front of the net. Tanguay easily shot it into a large area of empty net as Ward was stuck on the other side of the crease due to the trajectory of MacKinnon’s original shot.
Carolina responded a few minutes later as a beautiful passing play led to the game-tying goal. As the Canes rushed into the Avs zone, forward Victor Rask crashed the net hard, stopping in front of Colorado goalie Semyon Varlamov, where he finished a perfect feed through traffic from forward Kris Versteeg.
The Canes struggling special teams finally got the job done towards the end of the second, scoring only its fifth power play goal in 11 games. Faulk left no doubt this time, blasting a slapshot from the point past Varlamov to give the Canes a 2-1 lead.
“The power play goal was huge,” Hurricanes coach Bill Peters said. “Killing the 5-on-3 was huge. We’ve got room to improve on special teams, and we will.”
In the third, Hurricanes forward Jeff Skinner showed off his skating ability and skill to extend the lead. Skinner skated a puck from behind the Colorado net into the slot, making defenders look lost and eventually firing a shot past the glove of Varlamov.
Carolina defenseman Brett Pesce picked up his first career NHL point with an assist on the goal.
With Varlamov pulled for an extra skater, Colorado added a goal from forward Carl Soderberg, but it wasn’t enough as the game ended 3-2.
“We’ve got some traction now and a little bit of confidence,” Peters said. “We’ve got both goaltenders going, and I think we’re going in the right direction for sure. There’s a lot of positives.”
