Canes lose another on the road

DENVER -- The Carolina Hurricanes lost an early lead.

They lost forward Tuomo Ruutu, who had a goal and assist, to a game misconduct.

Finally, the Hurricanes lost another road game, dropping a 5-4 decision Friday to the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center.

Paul Stastny had two goals and an assist for the Avs, the surprise Western Conference leaders and one of the NHL's best feel-good stories of the early season. His 5-on-3 power-play score with 13:39 to play pushed Colorado ahead 5-3 and proved to be the winner,

But the Hurricanes, who led 2-0 early in the first period, didn't crumble. Ray Whitney, denied on a penalty shot early in the third, scored with 11:20 remaining to make it a one-goal game.

But there would be no comeback, no squeezing out a point in this game. The Canes are 2-5-2 overall and 0-4-1 on the road.

"It was frustrating to lose this one," said the Canes' Matt Cullen, who scored late in the second period. "We felt we should have won and we had our opportunities.

"We got a pretty good start. But then we got ourselves into trouble again."

The Avalanche, so sluggish in the early minutes, scored two goals in a 32-second span of the first period, then two goals 40 seconds apart in the second for a 4-2 lead. It was an impressive bounce-back by the Avs, playing their first home game after seven straight on the road.

The Hurricanes, after a 4-3 shootout loss to the New York Islanders, did fight their way back into it. Cullen scored late in the second period, and Whitney earned the penalty shot after being hauled down by David Jones.

But Avs goaltender Craig Anderson stoned Whitney with 16:57 left to keep Colorado in front. The Avs then followed with the Stastny 5-on-3 score with 13:39 to play.

A power-play goal by Carolina's Joe Corvo and the score by Ruutu was a jolt for the Avs, coming in the first 5:49 of the game. But rookie Ryan O'Reilly scored with 3:45 left in the first and Stastny flashed in front of the goal and flipped a backhander past Cam Ward with 3:13 left.

But the Avs appeared to play with blood in their eyes after Ruutu slammed Darcy Tucker into the glass with a hit from behind 5:26 into the second. Tucker was knocked unconscious and had to be taken from the ice on a stretcher, but later regained consciousness and was taken to a hospital.

Ruutu was given a five-minute boarding major, although the Avs' Adam Foote was penalized for roughing.

"We missed him," Canes coach Paul Maurice said of Ruutu. "On the road, you need a forward like that."

The Canes were shorthanded for three minutes and nearly killed it off, but Milan Hejduk scored with 26 seconds left in the power play on a shot from the circle for a 3-2 lead.

Forty seconds later, it was 4-2, as Wojtek Wolski duplicated Hejduk's shot from the left circle. But Cullen answered, scoring on a wraparound for his third goal.

"We got in penalty trouble and the game got away from us," Maurice said. "We had some good looks around their net and they had some good looks around our net, too.

"Four goals should have been enough to win,"

But the Avs (7-1-2) were not to be denied. Anderson was scheduled to have the night off but made his 10th straight start -- a franchise record to begin a season -- when Peter Budaj came down with the flu.

Maurice made a few line shifts late in the Islanders game Wednesday and opened the Avs game with his new-look lines. Rod Brind'Amour opened on the wing on Cullen's line with Scott Walker, and Chad LaRose -- who picked up his first point of the season -- was on the top line with Eric Staal and Whitney.

The Canes played without defenseman Tim Gleason, out with an upper-body injury suffered in the Islanders game. Gleason, said to be "day-to-day" by Maurice, was replaced in the lineup with Jay Harrison.

The Avs have spent much of the early season on the road -- and thrived. In a recent seven-game trip, they picked up 10 of a possible 14 points to claim first place in the Western Conference.

Not too shabby for a team with a pair of 18-year-old rookie forwards, Matt Duchene and O'Reilly in the lineup. Colorado is tied for the third-youngest team in the league.