Avalanche Claim Fourth-Straight Win with 4-1 Finish Over Hurricanes

Piling up the wins.
The Colorado Avalanche topped the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Saturday night at Ball Arena as they hosted Hockey Fights Cancer Night. The Avalanche are now 8-4-1 on the season.

For the Avalanche, Cale Makar scored twice including once on the power play, while Nathan MacKinnon (1G, 1A) also found the back of the net. Mikko Rantanen (1G, 3A) had a hand in all four goals as he dished out three assists and added an empty netter. In net, Pavel Francouz made 24 saves on 25 shots as he earned his first win of the regular season.
For the Hurricanes, Jordan Staal scored the lone goal. Antti Raanta made 24 saves on 27 shots.

GAME SUMMARY:

Saturday night's contest featured tight-checking stingy hockey between the two clubs, who battled for every inch of ice.
Makar produced a two-goal effort following the first 20 minutes of play to give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
The 24-year-old blueliner scored the game's icebreaker on an odd sequence at 14:29 as he converted on Colorado's second power play - as Canes winger Andrei Svechnikov took a roughing penalty at 14:05 - of the frame. After a faceoff win, Nathan MacKinnon fed Rantanen who played Makar at the blueline. From distance, Makar fired a high shot. The blistering shot ricocheted off the endboards and arched to the net front where it bounced off Raanta's skate blade and into Carolina's net.

The Avalanche then doubled their lead at 17:51 on a nice forechecking sequence. Rantanen laid out a huge hit along the boards to regain possession of the puck. The Finnish winger turned and skated into the slot where he dished a feed to the inside of the right faceoff circle for Makar. Makar walked into the pass and wired a wrist shot off the far post and into the net for his second goal of the game and second of the first frame.

In a relatively low-event second period - which featured a combined 16 shots on net (10 for Colorado) - Carolina trimmed its deficit down 2-1 after capitalizing on an odd-man rush at 13:55. The Canes hemmed the Avalanche in their own zone and upon regaining possession, executed a quick counter attack up ice leading to a two-on-one rush. Jordan Martinook threaded a pass through the slot and past a back skating Jacob MacDonald to Staal where the Canes' captain put the puck past Francouz at the far post.

In a similar fashion to Carolina's second-period strike, the Avalanche extended their lead 3-1 at 4:16 in the third period. After collecting the puck and charging up ice on a counter attack, Rantanen dished out his third helper of the night as he fed MacKinnon across the slot on an odd-man rush. The Avalanche centerman buried his fourth goal of the season on the one-timer past Raanta.
Late in the third period, the Canes pulled Raanta in exchange for an extra skater and the Avalanche furthered their lead on the empty net. Rantanen completed his four-point (1G, 3A) outing

FRANCOUZ EARNS FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON

Francouz had yet to pick up his first win of the regular season, but finally did on Saturday against Carolina as he made 24 saves on 25 shots in a "fantastic" performance according to Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar. With his first win of the season, Francouz improved his record to 1-3-0.

From the get-go the Czech netminder was sharp for the Avalanche and came up with timely, clutch stops throughout the game despite not facing a light workload of just 25 shots, including only six in the middle frame.

NOTEWORTHY:

• Makar scored his second and third goals of the season and first on the power play as he extended his point streak to five games where he's totaled nine points (3G, 6A) in that span.
• Rantanen scored his 10th goal of the season and assisted on both of Makar's goals and MacKinnon's third-period strike. The Finnish winger now has a five-game point streak with a whopping 14 points (7G, 7A) in that stretch.
• MacKinnon's hot streak continued as the centerman extended his point streak to five games with a goal and an assist on Makar's power-play goal. MacKinnon has totaled 13 points in the last five games and leads the Avalanche in scoring with 23 points (4G, 19A).
• Francouz made his fourth start of the season and improved his record to 1-3-0 as he recorded his first win of the season.
• Kurtis MacDermid suffered a lower-body injury in the first period and did not return for the Avalanche.
• Colorado finished the game 1-for-4 on the power play and 5-for-5 on the penalty kill.
• The team announced on Saturday morning that Shane Bowers will be out for six weeks after suffering an upper-body injury in his NHL debut on Thursday night against Nashville. Jayson Megna was recalled in his place.
• Bowen Byram and Samuel Girard (both sidelined with lower-body injuries) and Bowers (upper body) were scratches for Colorado.

NEXT GAME:

The Avalanche conclude their three-game homestand as they host the St. Louis Blues on Monday night at Ball Arena. The puck drops between the Avs and Blues at 7:00 p.m. MT.