Artturi Lehkonen had a goal and three assists, Logan O’Connor scored a short-handed goal for the third straight game and added an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 in Denver on Saturday night.
Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan Johansen had a goal and assist each, Mikko Rantanen and Fredrik Olofsson also scored, and Alexandar Georgiev turned away 23 shots for Colorado.
Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jaccob Slavin had a goal and an assist each, Brent Burns and Michael Bunting also scored, Stefan Noesen added two assists and Pyotr Kochetkov had 22 saves for the Hurricanes.
Carolina was without center Sebastian Aho (upper-body injury) and goaltender Frederik Andersen (precautionary reasons).
The Hurricanes took the early lead when Kotkaniemi beat Georgiev in front of the net at 16:09 of the first period. It was Kotkaniemi’s third goal of the season.
The Avalanche got the equalizer in the final moments of the first period when MacKinnon sent a pass to the front of the net and Johansen tipped it in at 19:54. It was his second goal of the season.
O’Connor gave Colorado a 2-1 lead on the penalty kill when he got the puck at center ice, skated in ahead of the defense and beat Kochetkov with a backhander at 1:57 of the second.
It was O’Connor’s third of the season and tied Joe Sakic for the most consecutive games with a short-handed goal in Avalanche history.
The Hurricanes struck quickly after that. Burns tied it with a power-play goal at 9:17 of the second, his second of the season, and it snapped the Avalanche’s streak of successful penalty kills at 19 to start the season.
Just 1:25 later, Bunting gave Carolina a 3-2 lead with his second of the season, but Olofsson tied it at 12:21 when he scored his first of the season and first with Colorado.
Lehkonen scored his second goal 1:49 later, MacKinnon got his third soon after and Rantanen’s fourth of the season at 19:35 of the period made it 6-3.
Slavin’s third goal of the season at 12:26 of the third got Carolina within two.
–Field Level Media