RALEIGH, N.C. — The Colorado Avalanche spends most games dictating the terms of engagement, holding onto the puck and making its opponents chase and react accordingly.
The Carolina Hurricanes are one of the few teams in the NHL that can make the Avs look like everyone else. That happened Thursday night at Lenovo Center.
Colorado’s players spent the entire night chasing the guys in red, particularly after giving the puck back to them. The Hurricanes dominated possession time and on the shot clock en route to a 5-3 victory in Scott Wedgewood’s first start for the Avalanche.
“We didn’t move the puck quick enough, didn’t handle their pressure well enough,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Sometimes we were trying to make the most difficult pass. I think when you’re playing Carolina, it’s got to be the simplest form of your game that there is until you can create space and find the space behind them.”
Wedgewood stopped 22 shots in relief Tuesday night to help spark an incredible comeback in Buffalo. He stopped the first 10 shots he faced in this game, but Carolina kept firing and allowed no such valiant rebuke from the visitors.
Colorado struggled to create any sort of extended offensive pressure and repeatedly turned the puck over in its own zone. The Avs’ top line did create chances, including some excellent ones. Those players’ normally ruthless finishing skills escaped them too often, and the rest of the roster spent most of the night under siege at the other end of the ice.
“That’s the way they play. Teams know that and you prepare for it, scout it and you find ways to exploit it,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “I think we were able to exploit it in some big ways, but just not consistently enough to win the hockey game.”
There was one spark late in the third period. Valeri Nichushkin collected the puck off a set play on a breakout and snapped a shot past Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov with 5:19 remaining in the third period. It was Nichushkin’s fourth goal in 10 games since returning from a six-month suspension.
Then, after Carolina scored on the power play to seemingly put the game away, Nichushkin added another with the goalie pulled for his fifth of the season. But this one ended the way it went for most of the night — Carolina had the puck in the offensive zone with Colorado chasing it before the Hurricanes finally put it in the empty net with 16 seconds left.
The Avs did not have the puck very often in the first period, but the top line did create a pair of breakaways. Kochetkov stopped Nathan MacKinnon on the first one, but Artturi Lehkonen beat him on the second at 9:13. Cale Makar sprung Lehkonen with a perfect pass from below the Colorado goal line to the streaking forward at center ice.
Colorado Avalanche’s Artturi Lehkonen (62) gets the puck past Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov (52) for a goal during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
Lehkonen, who joined MacKinnon, Makar, Toews and Mikko Rantanen as the five Avalanche players selected for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off on Wednesday, scored his sixth goal in 15 games this season. That includes a goal in three of the past four contests.
Carolina had a 30-8 advantage in shot attempts in the first period, and eventually one went in. Eric Robinson tipped a shot from the right point by Brent Burns, and he got just enough of it to fool Wedgewood at 16:05 of the period.
The second period looked a lot like the first, except the Hurricanes pulled ahead. Seth Jarvis was wide open at the top of the right circle with Carolina on the power play at 4:09 of the second. Wedgewood had Joel Kiviranta between him and Jarvis and appeared to look around his teammate to the short side just as Jarvis teed up a shot that beat him to the far side.
Colorado’s second line had a tough first period — Carolina had an 8-0 advantage in shot attempts when that trio was on the ice. It didn’t get better early in the second period.
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Casey Mittelstadt, mired in the worst slump of his brief Avs tenure, took his second penalty of the game ahead of the Jarvis goal. Then his turnover in the defensive zone led to Carolina’s third. Andrei Svechnikov teed up Jack Roslovic for a one-timer in the right circle for a 3-1 lead at 6:41 of the second.
Wedgewood finished with 30 saves, and the Avs nearly had one more crazy comeback in them.
“He was great,” Toews said of Colorado’s new goalie. “We’re there for battle for him, and he’s there for battle for us. That’s what we love. His communication is really good and it’s only going to get better with more reps and more time.”
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