Canes top Avs on Rask's OT goal
The official game recap Colorado Avalanche vs Carolina Hurricanes.Victor Rask scored at 1:49 of overtime to give the Carolina Hurricanes a 1-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday at Pepsi Center.
Hurricanes goalie Cam Ward made 26 saves; the final one came against Jarome Iginla on a clean breakaway 25 seconds into overtime. Rask then gave Carolina the victory when he burst past Gabriel Landeskog in the Colorado zone, cut in and slid a backhand shot past Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who made 18 saves.
The Avalanche had won 10 consecutive games against the Hurricanes at home and had 10 wins and two ties against them in the previous 12 games in Denver. The last home loss came Feb. 9, 1996, at McNichols Sports Arena when the Hurricanes were known as the Hartford Whalers.
The Hurricanes (2-4-0) were starting the second leg of a seven-game road trip after going 1-1-0 in the first two games. They play at the Los Angeles Kings on Friday. Colorado (2-3-1) hosts the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
Carolina had two shots but couldn't convert on its fifth power play of the game, which began 46 seconds into the third period when Colorado's Blake Comeau went off for boarding.
Ward made a nice stop against Iginla at the edge of the crease at 12:30 of the third and raised his stick blade to knock away Matt Duchene's attempt at an open net with 3:42 remaining.
Varlamov made a glove save against Kris Versteeg on a breakaway with 36 seconds left in the second period to keep the game scoreless.
Neither team had many quality scoring chances despite four power plays each in the first two periods. The Avalanche had 16 shots on goal and the Hurricanes 10.
Colorado went 5-for-10 on power plays in their first three home games but was 1-for-8 in last weekend's road games against the Anaheim Ducks and Los Angeles Kings.
The Hurricanes were 2-for-20 on power plays in their first five games.
Rask shot the puck off the right goal post during a power play at 6:40 of the first period after Carl Soderberg was penalized for tripping Andrej Nestrasil. Nathan Gerbe had a good chance in front while shorthanded at 16:30 of the first but was stopped by Varlamov.
Hurricanes defenseman John-Michael Liles left the ice with a towel over his face at 14:41 of the second period after he was hit by Iginla's skate in a collision in the corner. He returned in the third period.
-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --
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22/10/2015 - 08:00
