Avalanche Fall 5-3 to Hurricanes

Defeat in Carolina

The Avalanche lost 5-3 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday at the Lenovo Center. Valeri Nichushkin scored twice, Cale Makar added two assists and Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves.

"He gave us a chance," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said about Wedgewood's performance. "He made a lot of big saves, especially in [the] first period."

How It Happened

The Avalanche scored first at 9:13 of the opening frame when Artturi Lehkonen scored his sixth of the year on a breakaway after receiving an approximately 100-foot seam pass from Makar.

Carolina tied the game at 16:05 of the first period with an Eric Robinson deflection on Brent Burns' right-point shot.

Seth Jarvis gave the Hurricanes a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal at 4:09 of the middle frame via a right-circle wrist shot.

The Hurricanes doubled their lead when Jack Roslovic scored with a right-circle snap shot at 6:41 of the second period.

Nichushkin put the Avs within a goal at 14:41 of the third with his fourth goal of the season with a left-circle wrist shot off the rush.

"If you look at a guy like Val, he's been consistently getting better since he's been back in the lineup," Bednar said about Nichushkin. "And now he's starting to produce."

Martin Necas gave the Hurricanes a 4-2 lead with a power-play goal at 17:49 with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle.

Nichushkin scored his second of the night and fifth of the season at 18:13 with a shot from the low slot to put the Avs within one.

The Avs' third-period comeback attempt came up short as Andrei Svechnikov scored an empty-net goal to put Carolina up 5-3 at 19:44.

"I just thought there were moments in the game where we were better at moving the puck ahead of the pressure and keeping it simple and getting up the ice quicker," Bednar said. "We got a little bit better forecheck in the third period."

Next Up

The Avalanche travel to Detroit to faceoff against the Red Wings on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT on Altitude and Altitude+.