Peter Koutroumpis
RALEIGH, N.C. – Even while the Carolina Hurricanes extended their winless streak at home to four games, coach Rod Brind’Amour believes his team will learn from a lot of tough lessons they’re experiencing right now.
A 3-2 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in front of a sold out Pride Night crowd at PNC Arena on Friday played out like many games have at home all season – the Hurricanes fall behind after two periods and then put together a frenzied rally in an attempt to tie or win the game during the third period.
Unfortunately, the rally fell short on this night – not for a lack of effort though, but rather a lack of finish.
Two goals from Tyson Jost and the eventual game-winner from Samuel Girard was all the Avalanche needed to support goaltender Pavel Francouz’s 45-save performance to earn the win.
Teuvo Teravainen’s two goals led the Hurricanes offense while netminder Anton Forsberg played valiantly to make 29 saves in the losing effort in his Carolina season debut.
“I thought it was great, other than the result,” Brind’Amour said when asked about his impression of the game.
“Except one gaff we had in the end, I thought it was a great game. We played definitely well enough to win and you know again, gotta turn the page. Games come fast and furious. Lots of good – we’re gonna dwell on the positives for sure and keep cleanin’ up the other stuff.”
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Stats (NHL.com)
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We’ve been here before
A 4-3 overtime loss to Edmonton, followed by 5-2 and 4-1 losses to the New York Rangers and Dallas Stars, respectively, preceded this loss to the Avalanche at home.
Falling behind has become a requisite to setting up for a comeback attempt for Carolina too often this season.
Jost’s first goal of the game beat Forsberg at the 6:34 mark of the first period, followed by his second at 12:51 of the second period.
Colorado kept pace with the Canes who outshot them by a slim 28-24 margin after 40 minutes.
Blocked shots, pucks hitting the post, and many close misses kept the difference at 2-0 in the Avalanche’s favor.
“We’re down a couple of goals and we have to just keep shooting the pucks and be around the net,” Teravainen said in describing his team’s mindset in working to come back in the third period.
“That’s what we did. We got a couple of goals, we got it back. It’s just tough to lose that way.”
Close, but not enough
Outshooting Colorado 16-8 during the final 20 minutes, the Hurricanes were unable to take the lead.
Teravainen’s 14th and 15th goals of the season brought the teams level at the 7:55 mark.
Carolina continued to put pucks on net, but Francouz was up to the task of stopping them for the rest of the game.
Then it happened.
Jumping into the slot from the point, Gerard snapped a shot over Forsberg’s stick-side shoulder and the Avalanche led 3-2 with 2:37 remaining.
It was the back breaker that Carolina couldn’t recover from, though they tried.
A shot on a half-open net from defenseman Jaccob Slavin looked like the best chance to tie it, but it flew unobstructed over the net.
Recently acquired center Vincent Trocheck won a valuable draw that the Hurricanes could hopefully translate into a goal.
It wasn’t meant to be.
“There’s a lot of what-ifs tonight,” Trocheck said.
“We had a lot of chances. We just gotta do a little bit better at executing.”
“Obviously we’re tryin’ to do everything we can to get points there,” assistant captain Jordan Martinook added, talking a few feet away.
“It’s one play that kind of defines it. That’s where we’re at this time of year. Everything is magnified, every little play is so important. Nobody’s feeling sorry for us. We gotta pick our socks up and come back tomorrow night and it’s gotta be that third-period desperation the entire game.”
Notables: Carolina finished 0-3 on the power play, 41-191 (21.5%) overall…On the PK, the Hurricanes went 3-3, 185-223 (83.0%) overall….Sebastian Aho tallied assists on both Teravainen’s goals and extended his point streak to 14 games (12g, 9a). This marks the longest active point streak in the NHL, the longest point streak of Aho’s career, the longest point streak in team history (since relocation), and the third-longest point streak in franchise history. Mike Rogers is the only player in franchise history to record longer point streaks, recording a 17-game point streak from 2/18/80-3/22/80 (12g, 17a) and an 18-game point streak from 11/22/80-1/2/81 (19g, 20a)… Slavin posted an assist on Teravainen’s second goal, and tied career-highs in assists (29) and points (34), set during the 2016-17 season…Recently acquired defenseman Brady Skjei registered an assist tonight for his first career Hurricanes point.
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