Francouz makes 46 saves, Avalanche get past Hurricanes in OT

RALEIGH, N.C. --Pavel Francouz made 46 saves, and Artturi Lehkonen scored at 1:55 of overtime to give the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Thursday.

"It's a lot of fun for a goalie to have a fire of shots around you and the puck's hitting you," Francouz said. "Overall, it's a pretty fun night."
Lehkonen scored the game-winning goal on a one-timer from the right face-off circle off a feed from J.T. Compher.
"When 'Comph' got the puck, I just fanned out," Lehkonen said. "He made a great pass, and I was just trying to hit the net."

Evan Rodrigues and Alex Newhook also scored for the Avalanche (9-5-1), who have won five of their past six games.
Martin Necas had a goal and an assist, Sebastian Aho scored, and Antti Raanta made 13 saves for the Hurricanes (10-5-2), who have lost four of their past six games.
"That was a great game," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Twenty guys just doing it the way we need to do it. Nothing was going our way [but] we didn't get off track. I was extremely happy."
Colorado had a season-low 15 shots on goal and its worst shot differential (33) of the season.
"Everyone on the bench is aware we are getting outplayed for the better part of the night," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "You're going to need your goalie to hang in there and make some big saves for us, and that's what he did tonight. He got us that win, no question."

Francouz was sharp from the start. He stopped 12 shots in the first period, including back-to-back saves against Aho at 14:55 after he took a cross-crease pass from Seth Jarvis on a power play.
"We do the scouting every time before the game of the power play," Francouz said. "This was one of the topics. We especially focus on this play. It paid off right away."
Rodrigues gave Colorado a 1-0 lead on a power play at 7:20 of the first period when he got the puck off a turnover and spun around for the shot past Raanta's glove.
Aho tied it 1-1 at 7:14 of the second period from the top of the right circle off a face-off win by Necas.
Newhook took a stretch pass from Josh Manson, broke in and scored on a backhand to make it 2-1 at 14:20.
"I thought we played a good game," Necas said. "[We took] a couple of little breathers. Obviously, I cannot let him go on a breakaway. That's a tough one, when you're playing good and they score this kind of goal."

Necas tied the game 2-2 at 10:23 of the third period. After Jaccob Slavin's shot hit Avalanche defenseman Andreas Englund, he picked up the puck and scored around Francouz's outstretched leg.
"They sustained it all night," Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. "I felt like every single time, we were going back for pucks. Kudos to them. We, as a [defense corps], have to get a lot better at that to give our forwards chances. Overall, it showed a lot of character on our team tonight to be able to win that."
The Hurricanes had a power play with 1:49 remaining in regulation and had four shot attempts, including Francouz stopping a snap shot by Andrei Svechnikov from the slot with 10 seconds left.
"We've got to score on that one," Brind'Amour said. "We had a couple good chances. We've got to connect."
NOTES:Makar had a season-high 32:48 of ice time. … Francouz won his second game of the season (five starts), including a 4-1 victory against Carolina on Saturday. His 46 saves set a career high; he made 45 against the Hurricanes on Feb. 28, 2020. … Lehkonen scored his first NHL regular-season overtime goal. He has two overtime goals in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.