The Carolina Hurricanes entered the third period with two goals in hand but allowed the Colorado Avalanche to score four unanswered goals, dropping the sixth of their last eight games.
The Canes (24-14-3) and Avalanche (31-2-7), each sporting their retro jerseys for the second time this season, had a back-and-forth 60 minutes of hockey. After two periods holding off the league’s first-place team, Carolina couldn’t keep the momentum going in the final period, blowing another multi-goal lead in a 5-3 loss.
Less than 10 minutes into the final period, wingers Andrei Svechnikov and Nikolaj Ehlers were sent to the penalty box, giving Colorado two power-play opportunities. With the help of his linemates and lost coverage from Carolina, Avalanche center Brock Nelson capitalized on both chances, scoring twice and netting the game-winner on the second advantage from the circle.
“It is what it is,” said head coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Those are tripping penalties. The first one, you could probably let go because the play continues, and it’s a non-factor. That’s feel; you have to have feel for the game. [Blake] gets held, and he holds the guy and gets a penalty. But that’s neither here nor there; you have to kill penalties.”
Former Hurricane center Jack Drury also tallied a goal in the final period to tie the game at three. Just 33 seconds after the first goal from Nelson, defenseman Joel Nystrom attempted to clear the puck down the ice, but was intercepted by center Ross Colton. Drury, skating into the circle to the right of the net, collected a pass from Colton and snapped it home past goaltender Frederick Andersen.
Center Nathan MacKinnon was awarded the final goal after defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere pulled him off his feet to the ice. With an empty net for Carolina, and what would’ve been an obvious goal for MacKinnon, no penalty shot was necessary for the refs to declare it a goal.
Both Ehlers and Brind’Amour voiced their frustration postgame about the latest Hurricane meltdown.
“We’ve [blown a lead] four times in the last six games or something like that,” Ehlers said. “And it’s games where we’ve actually played really well up until the last period. Last game, it was me throwing the puck right to a guy in the slot. Today, it was a few mistakes, and it was in the back of our net. We have stuff we need to clean up; luckily, we have 41 games to do that.”
Although the game quickly went downhill for the Canes, their first two periods eclipsed an elite Avalanche squad, scoring three goals and stopping 23 of 24 shots on goal. Center Sebastian Aho marked the game’s first goal, scoring a short-handed goal with a leading pass from winger Eric Robinson. Ehlers and Svechnikov also tallied one goal each in the second period, further extending the lead.
“[Colorado] is too good not to get some chances,” Ehlers said. “[Andersen] played great tonight. So absolutely, we played really well in the first two periods against a team that’s as hot as they are. Those are the teams you want to play up against. We can take some stuff, but we have some stuff we have to bring with us as well, that we need to clean up.”
The Hurricanes travel to New Jersey to take on the Devils on Sunday, Jan. 4, with a 7 p.m. puck drop.
