OFFENSE LACKING
Hurricanes beat Colorado 3-1
RALEIGH, N.C.» Gabe Landeskog talked about finding an extra gear offensively. But at this point. the Avalanche is stuck in neutral.
Colorado remained on the outside of the Western Conference playoff picture after losing 3-1 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night, falling to 2-3 without leading scorer Nathan Mackinnon, who is out with a shoulder injury.
Mackinnon can’t get back soon enough for the Avalanche (2921-4), which has scored just five goals in its last four games. The Avs were 0-for-5 on the power play and had just seven shots in the third period.
“We’ve got to find it; we’ve got to find another gear offensively,” Landeskog said. “It hasn’t been good enough … and we don’t have much time right now. That’s the beauty of it. We have a chance to rebound Sunday at Buffalo and then get back to home ice.”
But the Avalanche can’t solely rely on home ice wins. This team remains with just 10 road wins — second-worst in the West.
“When the game is on the line you’ve got to double your shot count and make it a tougher night on Ward,” Landeskog said. “I’m sure if you ask him it was a pretty easy night.”
Coming off a 6-1 loss at St. Louis on Thursday night, Colorado entered the third period tied 1-1 but immediately lost any sort of momentum from a solid second period by allowing Brock Mcginn’s second goal of the game 35 seconds in. Mcginn scored his 10th of the season from in front of the net on a centering pass from Elias Lindholm as Landeskog was late on a back check.
“Even at that point, it’s a onegoal game, but they started swarming us as soon as we would get into the zone and they were doing a good job of closing plays down,” Landeskog said. “We didn’t get too much room which is tough to play against.”
Colorado then spent much of the rest of the third period on its heels, falling to 2-5-1 since its 10-game winning streak. Jeff Skinner scored his 16th goal with 6:43 left on a rebound to ice the victory for Carolina.
“I would like to see a little more traffic for some secondary chances and some screens,” said Colorado coach Jared Bednar.
Semyon Varlamov, who stopped an Avalanche-record 57 shots against Carolina in an early November victory, hasn’t won since Dec. 29, facing 35 shots this time.
Meanwhile, Carolina improved to 4-2-1 on its season-long eightgame homestand and moved ahead of the New York Islanders and Columbus for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Tyson Barrie was on the good and bad ends of both first-period goals within a span of just 18 seconds late in the first period.
J.T. Compher battled through a series of checks along the end boards before Mikko Rantanen won a puck battle with Jordan Staal and fed a trailing Barrie for his fifth of the season and first goal since Dec. 18. It was the 13th time in the last 18 games Colorado has scored first.
But the lead didn’t last long as Barrie was stripped behind his own net by Lindholm, who fed Mcginn for a wide open opportunity on Varlamov with 2:51 left in the first.