THE SCORING:
1st Period:
6:58 - COL 1, CAR 0, PPG - J.T. Compher buried a feed from Alex Newhook on the backdoor to give Colorado a 1-0 lead. Andre Burakovsky also picked up an assist.
10:48 - COL 2, CAR 0 - Valeri Nichushkin drove to the net and Andersen made a strop on his initial attempt, but Nathan MacKinnon jammed in the puck to double Colorado's lead 2-0. Mikko Rantanen also notched an assist.
2nd Period:
1:56 - COL 3, CAR 0, PPG -Andre Burakovsky sent a slick feed to the doorstep where J.T. Compher tapped in his second goal of the game to extend Colorado's lead 3-0. Devon Toews also notched an assist.
2:21 - COL 4, CAR 0 - Logan O'Connor sent a feed to the goal mouth where Andrew Cogliano's initial attempt was denied but Ben Meyers buried the rebound as he scored his first NHL goal in his NHL debut.
3:02 - COL 4, CAR 1 - A Brady Skjei skimmed off Jordan Staal and beat Darcy Kuemper to trim Carolina's deficit down 4-1. Brett Pesce also registered an assist.
8:44 - COL 4, CAR 2 - Jordan Staal scored his second goal of the night as he redirected Nino Niederreiter's shot past Kuemper to cut the Avalanche's lead down 4-2. Jaccob Slavin also tallied an assist.
11:17 - COL 5, CAR 2 - In a quick transition play up the ice, Alex Newhook grabbed a pass in the slot from Nicolas Aube-Kubel and put his second attempt past Andersen to extend The Avalanche's lead 5-2.
13:33 - COL 5, CAR 3 - Darcy Kuemper laid out to deny an initial attempt on Jordan Martinook, but Sebastan Aho swept in and lofted his shot into the net to cut Carolina's deficit down 5-2. Seth Jarvic also collected an assist on the goal.
3rd Period:
4:08 - COL 6, CAR 3 - From the net front, Mikko Rantanen grabbed Valeri Nichushkin's feed and roofed a backhander over Andersen to give the Avs a 6-3 lead.
6:28 - COL 6, CAR 4, PPG - On the backdoor, Andrei Svechnikov slipped his shot under Kumper's elbow to trim the Canes' deficit down 6-4.
11:43 - COL 7, CAR 4 - Nathan MacKinnon unloads a spin-o-rama and it redirected off a Canes defenseman and sailed past Andersen to give Colorado a 7-4 lead. Mikko Rantanen and Devon Toews picked up the assists.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
The Avalanche were 2-for-5 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
GOALTENDING BATTLE:
Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves on 33 shots for the Avalanche.
Frederik Andersen made 26 saves on 33 shots for the Hurricanes. Andersen left the game with 4:31 left in regulation and Antti Raanta replaced him for the remainder of the game and made 4 saves on 4 shots.
NOTEBOOK:
Kuemper made his 52nd start of the season and improved his record to 36-9-3 and has won his last six-straight starts… J.T. Compher scored his 15th and 16th goals of the season… Nathan MacKinnon scored his 30th goal and 31st goals of the season and became the third player on the team to hit the 30-goal mark this season. The centerman has nine goals in his last six games… In his NHL debut, Ben Meyers scored. Meyers is the eighth player in Avalanche history (since relocating) to score in his NHL debut…. Newhook buried his 13th goal of the season… Rantanen scored his team-leading 36th goal of the season…
NEXT GAME:
The Avalanche continue their homestand as they host the Washington Capitals on Monday night. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
