Hurricanes Slow Colorado's Top Guns, Bounce Back For Big Win

The Carolina Hurricanes are back in the win column today thanks to a bounce back 5-3 win over the Colorado Avalanche last night.

The Canes looked like themselves once again: forechecking, getting pucks to the net and playing confidently and aggressively.

It wasn't the easiest opponent to go up against, as Colorado has some of the top elite talent in the NHL, but Carolina found a way to slow down those offensive dynamos enough to come away with a win.

"That was the complete opposite really," said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour on the bounce back performance. "I thought tonight, from the start, we had... obviously everybody has a game plan and you have an idea on what you want to try and do, tendencies but you have to execute. Tonight we executed the plan the best we could."

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When you're playing a guy like Nathan MacKinnon, you have to game plan specifically around him.

"It's different because of the elite talent that is there and the amount that they play," Brind'Amour said pre-game. "f you're matching up it's a tough one. Do you do it that way or do you have a couple of different guys that you want, in a perfect world, to play against them and how do you do that? There's a lot that goes into it when you have that much talent and it's very evident. It makes it a little trickier."

What makes it even more difficult is when Colorado plays their top-five for half of the entire third period.

Colorado Top-Five Third Period TOI:
MacKinnon - 9:23
Rantanen - 10:08
Lehkonen - 10:04
Makar - 11:16
Toews - 9:02

But it was another signature game from the firm of Jordan and Jordan, who were glued to the Avs' top line all night and managed to keep them mostly at bay.

"You have to give credit to everyone, because everyone has to take a turn," Brind'Amour said. "We always say, 'You're going to have to play against [MacKinnon],' and I thought everyone stepped up. You have to give Jordo a lot of credit. We had to play him most of the time and they did a real nice job. You're not going to ever stop that player and they have other players. Makar is a phenomenal player and the list goes on. But we did about as good of a job as you can.

"As a defensive forward or somebody who plays that role of trying to shut the best guys down, you relish the opportunities to try and do that," Martinook said. "I love when we get to play guys like Nate. It brings the best out of you in that aspect of it. It was fun. I look forward to these games for sure."

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When you have talent that good, you can't completely shut them down. The Avalanche still had their chances, namely four breakaways all by their top-four forwards, but it was also a big game for Pyotr Kochetkov who made quite a few big saves.

"Like I said, you're not going to hold that team to no scoring chances and they got there's, but he made two or three phenomenal saves at crucial times," Brind'Amour said.

The Canes were also able to get a bit more of their offense going last night as well.

Eric Robinson and Jack Roslovic continue to be vital depth scoring pieces, each picking up a goal a piece, and the power play also continued to be a difference maker.

Seth Jarvis scored his fourth power play goal of the year and Martin Necas grabbed his seventh en route to becoming the first player this season to 40 points as well as the fastest to that marker in franchise history.

But perhaps the biggest key was getting a four-point night out of Andrei Svechnikov, who has struggled as of late.

The young Russian has had a tough go at 5v5 scoring this season and while he still only managed a single 5v5 point in the win, his performance was one that the team hopes he can build on.

"Svech needed a game like that I think for himself," Brind'Amour said. "He's fighting that part a little bit, but I think this is hopefully a good confidence booster because he did some other things that were good tonight, especially that last goal and the goal before with the net front. He's doing the little things that you have to do. So hopefully that's a real positive step."

"I hope so," Svechnikov said when asked if he feels like his game is starting to come around. "I hope it's going to continue to pay off."