Avalanche defeat Hurricanes, clinch top seed in West

DENVER --Ben Meyers scored in his NHL debut, and the Colorado Avalanche clinched the top seed in the Western Conference with a 7-4 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Ball Arena on Saturday.

A finalist for the 2022 Hobey Baker Award as the top men's player in NCAA ice hockey, Meyers signed with Colorado as a free agent on Wednesday after completing his junior season at the University of Minnesota.
Meyers made it 4-0 at 2:21 of the second period when he cleaned up a loose puck in the slot with his backhand. He had two shots on goal in 9:30 of ice time.
"I kind of just blanked out," Meyers said of his goal. "Wasn't thinking much, but it was a pretty special moment. Great plays by my linemates (Logan O'Connor and Andrew Cogliano) to take it to the net, and I was just fortunate to get the rebound there."

J.T. Compher and Nathan MacKinnon each scored two goals, Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists, and Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for the Avalanche (55-14-6), who have won nine straight.
Colorado also clinched the Central Division title on Saturday and is four points ahead of the Florida Panthers for the Presidents' Trophy, given to the NHL team with the most regular-season points.
"Obviously, really happy to get the top seed in our division," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "It gives us home ice for a round or two. And then the overall race, like I've said before, it's not the be-all-end-all, but it's something that we had as a goal from the start of the season, to put ourselves in the best position to succeed."
Jordan Staal had two goals, and Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov each scored for the Hurricanes (48-20-8), who are tied with the New York Rangers for first in the Metropolitan Division.
"Let's be honest, they've got good players," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "I don't know that it was a total gong show for us, but it was just, we gave up too much early, [and] then we fought back. We always do. But like I said, you can't spot a team that many goals and expect to have success."

Frederik Andersen allowed seven goals on 33 shots before leaving with an undisclosed injury in the third period. He was replaced by Antti Raanta, who made four saves.
Staal also left in the third period after taking a hit from Colorado defenseman Cale Makar. Brind'Amour did not have an update on either player postgame.
"It's never fun to watch your teammates go down," Aho said. "We're facing some adversity right now [and] we'll see what are we about right now. Things haven't gone our way lately and a couple very big players go down for us tonight. These are the moments that our team has to come together. We'll come back stronger and I'm 100 percent confident that's what will happen."
Compher gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 6:58 of the first period on the power play.
MacKinnon extended it to 2-0 at 10:48, knocking in a rebound, and Compher made it 3-0 at 1:56 of the second period when he scored backdoor off a pass from Andre Burakovsky on the power play.
"Our power play was good, so there's a bright spot, but our penalty kill was no good. That was the difference in the game," Brind'Amour said. "We gave up two power-play goals. It kind of put us behind, but we were too sloppy and gave up too many good chances, and that team's too good to play that way."

Staal cut the lead to 4-1 at 3:02 when Brady Skjei's point shot went in off his body before making it 4-2 at 8:44 by tipping in a Nino Niederreiter shot from the blue line.
Alex Newhook pushed it to 5-2 at 11:17 by knocking in his own rebound.
Aho cut it to 5-3 at 13:33, scoring on a rebound seconds after Kuemper made a sprawling save on Jordan Martinook, but Rantanen extended the lead to 6-3 at 4:08 of the third period when he roofed a backhand.
Svechnikov closed the gap to 6-4 with a power-play goal at 6:28.
"I think we could have been a little bit better defensively, but we did a good job of staying calm throughout the game," Compher said. "They made a push. They're a good team. They didn't give up, and we managed to stay calm and come out with a victory."
MacKinnon scored for the 7-4 final at 11:43 when he spun around, sent the puck toward the front of the net and had it go in off Carolina defenseman Tony DeAngelo.
NOTES: Staal has scored eight goals in his past six games. … Kuemper has won six starts in a row and is 6-0-1 in his past seven starts. … MacKinnon has scored 31 goals this season and has reached the 30-goal mark for the fourth time in his career. He is third on the franchise list for most 30-goal seasons behind Joe Sakic (six) and Milan Hejduk (five). … Colorado defenseman Jack Johnson had one shot on goal and two hits in 16:01 of ice time after missing two games as a healthy scratch. … Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin had two assists to extend his point streak to four games (six points; two goals, four assists). … Compher has tied his career high in goals (16), previously set in 2018-19. … Burakovsky had two assists and has scored 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past eight games. … MacKinnon has scored 14 points (nine goals, five assists) in his past seven games.