DENVER — Reminiscent of the 2021-22 season, the Avalanche overmatched the Carolina Hurricanes 6-4 on Saturday by flexing their depth, scoring in waves and dominating the special team’s matchup.
Colorado scored five times in the second period — which included a shorthanded goal and two of three total power-play tallies to improve to a perfect 5-0-0 on the season. Despite the perfect record, the team still feels there’s another level they can get to.
“We’ve done a good job to start the year. I’m happy with the results,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “But I know that it’s nowhere near as good as we can play. We’re gonna keep pushing to get there as quickly and as fast as we can to get to the top of our game.”
Logan O’Connor began the onslaught of goals in the middle frame, receiving a pass from Andrew Cogliano and breaking in past the defenders to beat goalie Pyotr Kochetkov, scoring his third shorthanded goal in three games. He joins Joe Sakic (1999) as the only two players in franchise history to accomplish the feat. His three goals also trail Mikko Rantanen for second most on the team. And he’s doing it while playing just 11:45 per game.
O’Connor also leads the Avalanche’s nearly perfect penalty kill in ice time among forwards (3:12 per game).
“I’ll be honest I didn’t even know he really penalty killed much,” O’Connor said of tying Sakic for most consecutive games with a shorthanded goal. “Obviously, he was good at it because he’s good at everything else.”
Following his tally, which made it 2-1 for Colorado, the Avs surrendered two goals in 1:25. The first of the two, scored by veteran defenseman Brent Burns, came on the power play, ending the Avs’ streak of 19 successful penalty kills to start the season. Carolina continued its attack, outshooting the Avs 15-3 in the first 11:14 of the second period.
But then the onslaught began.
First, it was Fredrik Olofsson scoring his first in an Avalanche uniform. The 27-year-old, who grew up in Colorado, fired it past Kochetkov to even things up at 2-2 at 12:21. Less than two minutes later, Artturi Lehkonen scored on the power play. Then Colorado added two more before the break thanks to Nathan MacKinnon’s third of the season and Rantanen’s fourth. Lehkonen had three assists to lead the team with a career-best four-point performance.
Colorado’s first-period goal came from Ryan Johansen.
“I think we started working harder because all of a sudden the game was in jeopardy,” Bednar said of the Avs’ late second-period response.
The Avs turned to Alexandar Georgiev once again. After surrendering just four goals through four games to start the season, Georgiev stopped 24-of-28 shots to earn his league-leading fifth win.
Georgiev has played every minute of action so far for Colorado and has a .943 save percentage. He’s a large part of why the Avs’ penalty kill has been exceptional.
“Like I said from the start, he’s always the best penalty killer out there,” O’Connor said of his goalie. “He’s been huge for us the whole year in all situations.”
The Avalanche are one of three remaining teams with a perfect record. The defending Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights are 6-0-0, becoming the first defending champion to reach the mark. The Boston Bruins are also undefeated, though they’ve played just three games, and are facing the L.A. Kings later Saturday night.
