"Pretty evenly matched hockey game for the most part," said Avs head coach Jared Bednar. "We were doing a good job early, getting some shots on net. I would have liked to see a little more traffic get there for some secondary chances and some screens. I thought [Carolina goalie Cam] Ward was seeing a lot of our shots there, and we didn't come up with as many rebounds."
The Hurricanes finished with a 35-30 advantage in shots on goal and had a 68-54 edge in total shot attempts. Firing a lot of pucks on net has been Carolina's M.O. for the past few seasons, and the Avalanche couldn't match that effort in the later stages of the game.
Brock McGinn scored his second goal of the game 35 seconds into the final period to give the Canes a 2-1 lead, one that they held for the remainder of the contest. The Avs had seven shots in the third frame, while Carolina had 12 and tallied again with 6:43 left.
"That is not enough," said Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog. "When the game is on the line and you're down a goal, all of a sudden you got to double your shot count and make it a tougher night on Ward."
Colorado scored the first goal of the game as Tyson Barrie fired a hard snap shot from the low slot after getting a pass from Mikko Rantanen with 3:09 left in the opening stanza, but Carolina quickly tied the outing as McGinn scored 18 seconds later.
"It's nice to score first, but we gave it right back so it is kind of 0-0 again," Barrie said. "We've been having some trouble scoring goals the last several games. We're a team that does score. I think we're right up there in the top of the league. So, if we commit to playing well defensively, I think the goals will come."
Two of Carolina's goals on the evening came after the Avs had defensive-coverage miscues. Twice a Hurricanes player got space at the top of the crease and received a pass from below the goal line with only Colorado goaltender Semyon Varlamov in their way.
"Some of those are young mistakes," Bednar said. "We're antsy. We're trying to help, and we leave our coverage a little early and it ends up in the back of our net."
The Avalanche had four power-play opportunities on the night, but only had 6:47 of total time with the man advantage. Colorado did have six minutes of having an extra skater on the ice in the second period after Teuvo Teravainen was called for tripping 27 seconds into the stanza and then was given a double minor for high sticking nearly four minutes later.
Seven of the Avs' 30 shots came during the power play, but they couldn't beat Ward.
"I would have liked to take advantage of one of those chances we had on the four-minute penalty in the second period," Bednar said. "We had a couple really good looks where we made some plays, kind of got in all alone and we were unable to capitalize."
The Avalanche has scored one or fewer goals in three of its last four games and has five total in that time span.
"We got to find another gear offensively, no doubt," Landeskog said. "It hasn't been good enough the last four, five games.
"It seemed like they were swarming us as soon as we got into the zone. They were doing a good job of closing plays down, and we didn't get too much room down there. It's tough to play against, but we still have to find ways.
Colorado did have improvement on the way it started the contest. Both teams came out skating and traded chances up and down the ice, and that trend continued for most of the game.
"I liked our effort tonight. We were there competing. We were skating," Bednar said. "The game had really good pace to it, especially in the first period. It was up and down the ice and not many whistles. I just thought they were better with the puck tonight. They managed it better."
