Recap: Avalanche 4, Hurricanes 3

The Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and were dominating at the beginning of the game, but the Colorado Avalanche took over the contest in the third period and scored two goals in the final seven minutes for the win in front of 17,208 at the Pepsi Center on Saturday night.

The Canes have now lost five of their last six games and their 15 points is just one point out of last place in the league.

John-Michael Liles scored first for the Hurricanes just 3:48 into the game and Nathan Gerbe would follow up with a goal of his own just two minutes later.  The Canes were out-shooting the home team 8-0 at this point and they were looking good.

Midway through the period, Zach Redmond would score when the puck went off Andrej Sekera into the net, but the Canes would answer when newly acquired Andrej Nestrasil sent a puck at net that somehow got by goalie, Reto Berra.

It was Nestrasil's first NHL goal.

At this point, Patrick Roy had seen enough and replaced Berra with Calvin Pickard, who had yet to win an NHL game.

With the score 3-1, the Avs played with more resolve in the second period but other than an Erik Johnson goal,  the Hurricanes weathered the storm.

The third period was pretty much all Colorado though, especially in the final 10 minutes.  Jarome Iginla scored with about six minutes left and Redmond would light  the lamp again for the win.

Carolina was outshot 16-8 in that final period as the Avs ramped up their intensity like they did so many times last season.  But this team has been decimated by injuries and was missing many of their best players on this particular night.

Next up for Carolina will be a game against the Panthers in Florida on Wednesday night.

Game Notes:

• This is the second time this month that a rookie goalie beat the Canes while earning his first career NHL win.  The team needs to be able to pressure these goalies better and not make things easy for them.
• The Avs outshot the Canes 35-27 for the game.  Justin Faulk and Nestrasil led the way with four shots each.
• Brett Bellemore left the game in the first period with a lower body injury and could not return.  There was no status update after the game.
• Faulk had a game high 26:09 of ice time.  Sekera had 26:04.
• Carolina had four penalties called on them but did not have a single powerplay the entire game.  Brad Watson was one of the refs.  Enough said.
• The Canes were credited with six hits for the game.  Colorado had 17, including one by Cody McLeod that knocked Bellemore out of the game.
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