Hurricanes take Avalanche to overtime at PNC Arena, but fall 3-2 on Lehkonen goal
The Carolina Hurricanes did all they could Thursday to beat the Colorado Avalanche.
They outshot the Avs 48-15. They tied the score in the third period and had a late power-play chance to win it in regulation. The hustle was there, the grit.
But good teams find a way to win and the Avalanche came away with a 3-2 overtime victory at PNC Arena, their second over the Canes in less than a week. Artturi Lehkonen’s goal at 1:55 of OT decided it, Lehkonen zipping a shot from the right circle past goalie Antti Raanta.
“That was a great game,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “We play like that, with 20 guys doing it the way we need to do it ... nothing was going our way but we didn’t get off track. I was extremely happy. It didn’t go our way but it wasn’t for a lack of effort.”
Sebastian Aho and Martin Necas scored in regulation for the Canes (10-5-2), Necas tying the score 2-2 midway the third period. The Avs (9-5-1) twice had leads as Evan Rodrigues had a power-play goal in the first and Alex Newhook scored in the second for a 2-1 lead.
“That’s a great team we played tonight and I liked our game, other than the power play,” Aho said.
And the overtime. The Avs broke up a pass from Jaccob Slavin to Seth Jarvis to set in motion the winner.
Said Avs coach Jared Bednar: “We’ll take the two points and run.”
Some quick takeaways from the game:
▪ Francouz has two wins this season. Both over Carolina. He stopped 24 of 25 shots in the 4-1 win Saturday in Denver and 46 of 48 Thursday. Enough said?
▪ Aho had not scored in his past five games, goal-less since his hat trick against the Buffalo Sabres, and some frustration was showing. In the first period, he was open at the post but could not punch the puck past Francouz, slamming his stick into the glass behind the net.
That ended in the second period, Aho whistling a shot past Francouz from the top of the right circle. You could almost hear him exhale.
▪ Aho is known more for his speed and skill than spine-straightening hits, but he put one on Newhook in the first period that sent Newhook sprawling into the boards. That came not long after Aho won the race to prevent an icing call against Carolina, only to have the ref call icing anyway.
With boos cascading to the ice, Aho steamed and Brind’Amour hot behind the bench, the refs conferred and moved the faceoff to center ice.
▪ Interesting move by Brind’Amour in overtime to send out Brady Skjei and Brett Pesce with Jordan Staal in the three-on-three. Then again, the Avs had Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar on the ice.
▪ Puck luck? Avs defenseman Andreas Englund factored into the Necas goal, colliding with Francouz behind the net and knocking away his goalie stick. Necas swept in for an easy shot and score.
▪ The power play continues to be an adventure for the Canes and was costly Thursday. Carolina was 0-4 with nine power-play shots. After defenseman Calvin de Haan was high-sticked late in regulation, the Canes had a chance to win but managed one shot on goal. The Avs got a power-play goal from Rodrigues in the first.
“Our special teams are kind of killing us this season and that’s something we were really good at last season, so we have to figure some things out,” Necas said. “We had a good effort, we played a good game. It’s just about our power play. It’s not good enough.”
▪ When the opening lineups were announced, it was the MacKinnon line for the Avs and the taal line for the Canes. That game within the game began with the opening puck drop and continued.
With last change at home. Brind’Amour could get the matchup he wanted against the Avs’ stars. MacKinnon had three shots and Rantanen one. “Jordo played a dominant game,” Brind’Amour said. “Against that line, that’s impressive.”
▪ The Hockey Fights Cancer awareness game is always special and meaningful at PNC Arena.
Brind’Amour put it best: “It’s good to be reminded of the bigger picture, because we get caught up in talking about hockey when there’s so much going on. This is a reminder. Everybody is affected by it. Anything we can do to create awareness, which creates funds, which creates people having their opportunities to deal with cancer, is special.”
This story was originally published November 17, 2022 at 9:51 PM.
