Heavyweight hockey was on display Thursday night at PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C.
The NHL’s top two teams played intense, scoreless hockey through more than 54 minutes before the Carolina Hurricanes broke the ice with a fortunate goal, then added an empty-netter to defeat the Avalanche 2-0.
“It was well-played hockey by both teams, highly competitive, lots of pace,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “Not a lot of room out there. That’s why it was 0-0 for so long.”
Eastern Conference-leading Carolina (40-12-5, 85 points) and Western Conference-leading Colorado (41-13-5, 87 points) will have a rematch on April 16 at Ball Arena in what could decide the President’s Trophy for the league’s best record.
Hurricanes defenseman Ethan Bear scored with 5:40 remaining in the third period, sending a long shot through traffic from the point. The puck appeared to carom off Avs center Nazem Kadri and skipped behind goalie Darcy Kuemper. Forward Sebastian Aho doubled the lead in the waning minutes with Kuemper on the bench for a sixth attacker.
The Avs finished 1-2 on their three-game trip and 1-3-1 in their last five games — easily the worst stretch since they began the season 1-3-0. But Colorado played well enough to beat the Canes.
“We played hard, I mean, we played real hard and we played well defensively,” Bednar said. “We did some good things on the offensive side too. We had our opportunities to put one or two away to take a lead and we missed on them. They had some opportunities, especially early in the game, to grab a lead a missed on them. It was a good hockey game.”
Colorado took each of the four penalties in the third period, and although Carolina didn’t score on the power play, the Avs were irate about the officiating.
During the shift right before Bear’s goal, Kadri lost possession of the puck while being hooked by Canes forward Nino Niederreiter, who had drawn a Kadri high-sticking minor earlier in the period. Avs captain Gabe Landeskog was assessed a game misconduct in the final minute by arguing about the Kadri penalty and the Niederreiter non-call.
“I’m the one that looks like an idiot for getting thrown out of the game even though I’m just being honest,” Landeskog said.
Footnotes. Avs defenseman Sam Girard was scratched with a lower-body injury he sustained in Tuesday’s 5-3 loss at New Jersey. Girard traveled back to Denver before the game to get further evaluated. … Colorado has two days off before hosting the Calgary Flames on Monday.
