RALEIGH — The Hurricanes got a first period natural hat trick from Martin Necas and a power play goal by Michael Bunting to beat the visiting Avalanche 5-2 Thursday at PNC Arena.
Teuvo Teravainen had four assists, and Seth Jarvis added an empty-net goal for Carolina.
Three observations
1. After allowing two goals in seven seconds at the end of the first period, the Hurricanes went to the first intermission up 3-2 instead of 3-0. That led to big “next goal wins” vibes in the second, and Colorado seemed poised to get it with two power plays in the first 10 minutes of the period.
Instead, Carolina’s penalty kill held up.
“The kill was great,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the team’s season-best 6-for-6 PK. “They had a couple of chances, but with the talent they’re throwing out there — really, you look at it as a whole, to give up what we gave up over that stretch, that was pretty impressive.”
And when the Hurricanes then got their own power play opportunity, they converted.
Brent Burns — who had two assists, extending his assist streak to three games — got the puck to Teravainen in the left circle, and Teravainen made a perfect backhand pass to Bunting, who had beaten Colorado’s Zach Parise to the slot. Bunting picked the stick-side corner past Alexandar Georgiev (23 saves) to extend the lead to 4-2.
“He’s got some great poise and he’s got silky mitts and he’s able to make those plays,” Bunting said of Teravainen. “That’s my game on the power play just to kind of find that soft spot and try to get open and support the guys on the flanks, and he was able to find me.”
2. Brett Pesce was a late scratch, with Brind’Amour saying he didn’t find out until close to 5 p.m. that the Carolina defenseman would be unable to play due to illness. That led to Tony DeAngelo playing for the first time since Jan. 5 — his 13:40 of ice time Thursday was the most he’s had since Nov. 18 — and a shuffling of not only the D pairings but the line-matching assignments.
“It kind of put everything in a little spin there, and … tonight was different on that matchup how we were going about it both up front and then the back,” Brind’Amour said of trying to contain the Avs’ stars — especially Nathan MacKinnon. “It was a little bit dicey. They’re not as normal as we would maybe to do it, but it worked out.”
A big part of that was Carolina leaning on Burns and Jaccob Slavin. Burns logged 26:37 and Slavin 24:56 — both season highs — and kept MacKinnon from registering a point for just the ninth time this season.
3. It was a playoff-like game with physicality and feistiness. It was a perfect for Bunting.
“It’s fun when there’s emotions in the game and both teams are being really competitive and it kind of gets chippy,” he said. “It’s kind of like a playoff atmosphere when games are like that. So yeah, I always love games like that.”
Bunting was in the middle of everything, drawing penalties and at the bottom of scrums while also contributing offensively — he tied for the game’s most shot attempts with eight and got his sixth power play goal of the season and 11th overall.
“That’s his game,” Brind’Amour said. “We always say whatever you do you gotta go. … He got a huge goal because it was needed at that time and drew some penalties and kinda really should have drawn another one.”
He’s drawn 23 penalties on the season — tied for 13th most in the league — and his 1.91 penalties drawn per 60 minutes are fifth in the league.
Number to know
4 — Assists for Teravainen, a new career high. Teravainen assisted on every Carolina goal but the first, including getting his third primary assist of the night when Jarvis was awarded a goal with 54 seconds left.
Plus
Martin Necas, Hurricanes forward — What’s the best thing that can happen down the stretch for the Hurricanes? It’s Necas getting hot. He did that Thursday. Necas scored three times in just under 15 minutes during the first period for his first career hat trick. Carolina can live with Necas’ occasional defensive miscues — see the lackadaisical back check on Colorado’s 4-on-4 goal at the end of the opening period — if he’s producing like a point-per-game player.
Minus
Pyotr Kochetkov, Hurricanes goalie — It’s impossible to not put Kochetkov here after he allowed a memorably bad goal.
https://twitter.com/Sportsnet/status/1755759950163316830
It led to him being pulled after 20 minutes. Antti Raanta came on in relief and stopped all nine shots he faced in the second period, but Kochetkov was forced to reenter the game for the third after Raanta suffered a lower-body injury.
Full marks to Kochetkov for his performance in the third. He shook off getting the hook and stopped the 10 shots he faced (finishing with 16 saves) in the third period.
“I give him a lot of credit because obviously he wasn’t happy with what happened,” Brind’Amour said. “You’re not thinking he’s gonna have to get back in there, but he did. And he played great. So that’s gotta be a real big confidence booster for him.”
They said it
“He was like, ‘Nechy, go,’ so I stepped on the ice. So I give him the second apple there.”
— Hurricanes forward Martin Necas on Stefan Noesen sending him out in his place as the sixth attacker on a delayed call, leading to Necas’ second of three goals in the first period.
