The Carolina Hurricanes lost to the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 on Saturday at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Hurricanes had a two-goal lead after two periods but allowed four goals in the third period.
Sebastian Aho opened the scoring late in the first period with a shorthanded goal. Gabriel Landeskog tied it for Colorado early in the second, but Nikolaj Ehlers and Andrei Svechnikov responded for Carolina, making it 3-1. However, Colorado scored twice in the opening minutes of the third period to tie, then took their first lead with another power-play goal before sealing the win with an awarded goal.
Frederik Andersen made 30 saves on 34 shots for Carolina, whose winless streak reached nine games (0-7-2).
Aho scored his 300th career NHL goal, becoming only the fifth Finnish player to reach that milestone. He has recorded multi-point performances in three of his last four games. Ehlers also scored for a second consecutive game and is now one of six Hurricanes players with at least ten goals this season—a mark tied for most among NHL teams. Svechnikov found the net again and has tallied five goals in his last seven games.
After the game, team captain Jordan Staal said: “We had two good periods. In the third, they started taking it to us a bit and kind of stressed us out. [We] took penalties, and they’ve got a good power play. You give that power play too many opportunities, and they’re going to make you pay…”
Head coach Rod Brind’Amour commented: “We just keep beating ourselves. In essence, that’s what’s happening. Yeah, they made the plays, but we were giving them opportunities that you just can’t do. We keep talking about it, but in the room, it has to come from there. Right now, it’s not happening.”
Ehlers addressed recent issues holding leads: “We’ve done it, what, four times in the last six games? It’s games where we’ve played really well up until the last period. The last game, it was me throwing a puck right to a guy in the slot. Today, we made a few mistakes, and it was in the back of our net. We’ve got stuff we need to clean up. Luckily, we’ve got 41 games to do that.”
Brind’Amour also noted: “Other guys have to chip in. Jarvy’s out, and that’s a big part of it, but now we obviously need contributions from everyone. That’s the only way this team wins. Right now we’re not getting it done.”
Staal reflected on recent struggles: “We’re finding ways to lose… We’ve got to pull a 60-minute game in and just do it all the way through… It’s frustrating… It’s on me and leadership here… Tomorrow better be more like our game…”
The Hurricanes will next play against New Jersey on Sunday night.
The Carolina Hurricanes are based at Lenovo Center in Raleigh and contribute over $200 million annually to the local economy through events and community engagement (source). The arena can accommodate up to 20,000 people and hosts more than 150 events each year (source). The team began operations as an NHL franchise following their move from Hartford to Raleigh in 1997 (source) and won their first Stanley Cup championship in 2006 (source).
