"I'm happy with the results, but I know that it's nowhere near as good as we can play." Avs hungry for better even after fifth-straight win

The Carolina Hurricanes arrived in Denver on the heels of a disappointing exchange of blows in their fall to Seattle. Colorado received another team on the fifth leg of a long road trip.

The Avs on the other hand rode in on the high of a 4-0 shutout in their home opener. They extended their win streak tonight to five games tonight, but it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t ugly either, it was eventful.

The Avs finished this one 6-4.

At morning skate, Jared Bednar talked about how a hot start out the gate could become an integral part of their identity much like the 2022 Cup team. He wants Ball Arena to earn the reputation of being a difficult building to play in.

Alexandar Georgiev played his fifth consecutive start. Tomas Tatar, who received the promotion last game, remained on the top-line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen briefly. 

Jonathan Drouin stayed on the right side of the third line as well. The lines received another remix mid-game, this time it was Rantanen and MacKinnon who needed to spend some time apart.

Eventually MacKinnon played with Artturi Lehkonen and Val Nichushkin, and Rantanen joined Ryan Johansen and Tatar.

Jared Bednar noted that Rantanen and MacKinnon weren’t creating chances together. 

“Sometimes it’s just a mental block and they need a little boost.” The change-up helped.

Colorado’s first period wasn’t a track meet like Bednar had hoped, but it was relatively stable.

MacKinnon was boarded by Carolina’s Jalen Chatfield. Cale Makar in particular was displeased.

Later, MacKinnon took a cross-checking penalty and the Avs extended their penalty kill perfection, but it’s unlikely the Avs felt that way. Upon its expiry down to the second, Stefan Noesen tapped the puck toward the blue paint, and Jesperi Kotkaniemi batted the loose puck in from the top of the crease.

Unfortunately the PK perfection wouldn’t persist, but more on that in a moment.

There was a residual hunger from the Avs. They were not about to leave the period down a goal. They played well and wanted a better fate and didn’t appreciate MacKinnon being boarded.

Jordan Martinook took a penalty with twenty seconds remaining in the first period. They had to make quick work of it, but MacKinnon had just the move to recover the puck, dance around Jaccob Slavin, and feed Ryan Johansen waiting at the side of the crease. Johansen’s skate batted it in with six seconds to go.

Look, the second period was nuts.

Early into its start, Bowen Byram box went to the box for tripping. Carolina lost the puck and Andrew Cogliano sent the puck ahead for Logan O’Connor. For the third-straight game in a row, O’Connor scored shorthand.

Makar took a penalty, Brent Burns scored on their powerplay, and the penalty kill streak officially came to an end.

Shortly after, Carolina’s Michael Bunting scored to give the Hurricanes a brief lead.

A few minutes of ugly hockey occurred smack in the middle of the period – Colorado’s stars struggled a bit to make something happen.

Fortunately, depth continued to step up.

“We all kind of rallied,” said Fredrik Olofsson. “[Makar] had a big hit along the boards a couple shifts before our line was able to put one in. When we get out there, we want to try to change the course five-on-five. Glad we could help tonight.”

The hit Olofsson referenced was in fact a huge reverse hit on Seth Jarvis. It forced Jarvis to give up the puck.

O’Connor earned his second point of the night off a feed to Olofsson. Olofsson wristed the puck in to tie the game – scoring his first goal in an Avalanche sweater.

“First on the team is pretty special, I think compared to my first in the league, it feels more normal now. It feels like this is my job. Coming here and contributing is what I want to do,” Olofsson admitted.

The fourth line injected new energy into the Avs group. It was like they hit a reset button and the missed opportunities owed to Colorado’s top-six from before crashed down on Carolina.

“The first line is always going to be following our line right now, so building our line changes well, putting teams on their heels, (and) getting tired groups out there is oftentimes what we can do to help those guys out and give them the best chance of having success,” O’Connor explained.

Moments later, MacKinnon drew a penalty on Brady Skej. 

Makar snaked past three Carolina skaters who couldn’t catch him up ice. A seam pass found Johansen and Artturi Lehkonen was rewarded with a powerplay goal off a tip-in.

Lehkonen had four points tonight – a new single-game career high.

That same hunger that grabbed at Colorado in the first took hold again – this time born from the momentum of their confidence rising especially from inside the top-six.

Val Nichushkin and Lehkonen hounded the Hurricanes for the puck and Lehkonen found MacKinnon alone in the slot. He wristed it in to make it 5-3.

With under a minute remaining, Michael Bunting went to the box and Colorado had another late powerplay opportunity. Rantanen lifted the Avs 6-3 in what was a collective seven goal frame between both sides. The top powerplay unit had three powerplay goals tonight.

Logan O’Connor credited the momentum switch to Colorado’s stars. “It goes back to our best players,” he said. “Those guys are so consistent with their work ethic and their playmaking, it’s easy to follow them when they’re doing all the right things out there. Those guys are always leading the charge for us.”

“We started working harder because all of a sudden the game was in jeopardy,” Bednar added.

In the third period, it was a close exchange back and forth. Carolina wasn’t going to let a three goal differential shut them down for the night. A Hurricanes team without Andrei Svechnikov, Sebastian Aho, and Freddie Anderson on the last game of a long road trip put up a good fight.

Tonight was still a good test from a well-built team from the East.

Slavin earned his second point of the night with a late goal to close the gap to two. A blast from the top of the left circle beat Georgiev who was screened in front.

The Avs held Carolina to just five shots in the third period, and the Hurricanes kept Colorado at bay with eight.

The buzzer sounded, and what felt like three different games inside of one, came to a close.

Colorado won their fifth-straight game. It was high-event and special teams played well.

The kill negated four of Carolina’s five chances tonight, so they remained extremely dialed in.

“You always want to keep the puck out of your net, but we’re not too result-oriented at the moment,” Olofsson said in response to the penalty kill streak ending. “We’re still trying to get all the pieces together, and when we do it right, we feel like the results follow. Act as a unit, to get in different scenarios against different teams helps a lot too. All the guys are doing a great job and credit to [Georgiev] back there too. He’s going to be our best penalty killer all year.”

O’Connor credited the Avs powerplay for helping to strengthen their PK as well. “As a penalty unit, going against our powerplay guys every day in practice is challenging. It pushes us to be better.”

And in case you forgot, O’Connor scored his third consecutive shorthanded goal. Bednar reiterated how dialed in Cogliano and O’Connor have been on the kill to make it all possible. Good reads, aggression, and speed that will punish has allowed O’Connor to join the ranks of few to accomplish such a feat.

O’Connor tied Joe Sakic’s franchise record of three-straight games with a shorthanded goal.

One lingering blight continued to be Byram’s trips to the box. He collected his seventh minor penalty through five games.

Byram is an important player to have on the ice. He has helped to alleviate some of the workload from Makar and Devon Toews. He hasn’t harmed the team directly yet, but it takes away from positive contributions he could be making.

“We all know what type of player he can be,” Bednar started.

“He can be a dominant player. Right now, he’s not there. He’s struggling a little bit. He’s struggling with the foot speed of the game, his reads, his timing’s off – that’s why he’s getting caught with some penalties. He’s reaching in, he’s not using his feet enough. He’s got to find a way to get himself going and respond. We’ll help any way we can. Obviously the first handful of games are nowhere near what he’s capable. It’s just like our team: we got some work to do.”

Bednar’s standard for his team is in alignment with the standard they hold themselves to.

“Maybe I’m just hard on our team because I expect a lot, but I think they expect a lot,” he said. “We’ve done a nice job. We’ve done a good job to start the year. I’m happy with the results, but I know that it’s nowhere near as good as we can play. We’re going to keep pushing to get there as quick and as fast as we can to get to the top of our game.”

They’re 5-0, and at points in the second period, this team looked frightening to play against.

There’s still work to do, and the Avs are just getting started.

They’ll practice Sunday and head out on Monday to New York. Their next game will be against the New York Islanders at 6:00 PM MST on Tuesday.