RALEIGH, N.C. — This one had a few more quirks, but for the third time in three tries since the All-Star break, the not bad, but far-from-optimal version of the Colorado Avalanche proved to be not enough against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference.
Martin Necas scored a natural hat trick on three of Carolina’s first four shots, and the Hurricanes sent the Avs to their third straight loss with a 5-2 victory at PNC Arena.
The biggest problem since the break is now officially the power play. Colorado converted 35% of its chances in the final 22 games before the time off, but the Avs had another rough night with the man advantage and it cost them.
Not only did they go 0 for 6, but three times they took a penalty to negate the power play. The Avs are now 0 for 12 with the man advantage during this mini-skid.
“I think their pressure for sure (caused) some trouble,” Avs forward Mikko Rantanen said. “We’d tried to adjust, but they were doing a good job. A couple of power plays were cut short by penalties, but yeah, we’ve got to be better.”
The first period was the wackiest 20 minutes of the season, probably by a significant margin. It featured five goals on 13 shots between the two teams, two extremely weird tallies and the two fastest goals in Avalanche history.
Necas scored on the game’s first shot on goal at 1:52 of the first. His harmless-looking shot from above the left circle hit Alexandar Georgiev’s blocker and caromed to the left, but glanced off the heel of his glove and into the net instead of heading for the corner like the goalie expected.
Necas made it 2-0 at 6:25 with a howitzer of a one-timer. The Hurricanes had a 6-on-5 with a delayed penalty, and Carolina whipped the puck around to stretch out the Avs defense and give Necas a wide-open look from the high slot.
Necas completed the hat trick at 16:51. Georgiev made his first save of the game at 16:48, but Teuvo Teravainen bumped the rebound toward the left post and Necas had a tap-in to make it 3-0.
“I didn’t like the first goal from (Georgiev), which puts us in a hole right away,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We make a mistake on the 6-on-5. We don’t pressure down low and almost play it like a 5-on-5 and they find the open man.
“You take that slow start and them winning the special teams battle was the difference.”
The Avs took a penalty while on the power play for the second time late in the first period, though Bednar called that interference infraction on Ryan Johansen “a joke.” Still, Colorado clawed back into the contest with a pair of 4-on-4 goals. Zach Parise’s first with the franchise came with 26.3 seconds left in the first on a shot that hit Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov and trickled across the goal line.
Samuel Girard made it a 3-2 game five seconds later with a goal from near the center ice red line off the ensuing faceoff. His shot from near the Hurricanes’ bench fooled Kochetkov and set a new franchise record for the shortest span between two goals.
Girard helped set up Parise’s goal as well, and now has 11 points in 16 games since returning to the team from the NHL/NHLPA Player’s Assistance Program. He had four points in 15 contests before entering the program.
The second period dialed back the zaniness, but Colorado’s special teams troubles persisted. The Avs failed to score on a pair of power plays, took a penalty during one for the third time, and allowed an extra-man goal when Michael Bunting scored on a one-timer at 12:06 of the period.
Bunting was involved in a couple of post-whistle interactions, and the Avs participated in more physical confrontations as the game wore on.
“They play a game where if you’re not getting things done, you’re going to get frustrated,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “We talked a lot about that before, just sticking together. When things weren’t going our way, you could tell some of the frustration was coming out. That just shows we’ve got a little bit of a ways to go.”
Nathan MacKinnon was held off the scoresheet for the second straight game — the first time that’s happened since the Avs were shut out in back-to-back games by Pittsburgh and Buffalo in late October. Colorado will try to snap this three-game slide Saturday in South Florida against another of the East’s top teams, the Florida Panthers.
“Certainly there’s things we could have done all (three games), but isolated mistakes tonight cost us,” Bednar said. “The effort and competitiveness in our game is what I’ve been wanting to see in the last two. It got there tonight. We didn’t have a choice with the way Carolina plays, but I thought our guys played hard, no question.”
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