Eurolanche

Avalanche end five-game losing streak

Mikko Rantanen scored on a one-timer off a pass from Matt Duchene with 37 seconds remaining in overtime to lift the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-1 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at PNC Arena on Friday.

Duchene stole the puck from Victor Rask in Carolina's offensive zone before skating to the top of the left circle and leaving a perfect pass for Rantanen, who scored past Cam Ward's glove.

The Avalanche ended a five-game losing streak.

"With a lefty, it's a one-timer," Duchene said. "You've got to know who you're with. I know he likes to one-time pucks from the top of the circle on opportunities like that, and I was just able to get the d-man to flip his stick a little bit and freeze the goalie with a fake and then slide it over."

Calvin Pickard made 28 saves for the Avalanche (16-38-2), who ended a five-game losing streak and an 11-game road losing streak. The win came in the final game of a five-game, seven-day road trip.

"It's funny, sometimes you could be playing your first game of the week and feel like you have no legs at all, and then you play a little bit more and you think you should be tired, but you're not," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I think that was the case for us tonight."

The Hurricanes (24-22-8), playing their first game after the five-day bye week, lost their third straight. Cam Ward stopped 35 shots.

Tyson Barrie gave the Avalanche 1-0 lead at 13:48 of the first period. Jarome Iginla made a move on Hurricanes defenseman Justin Faulk at the blue line before leaving a backhand pass for Barrie, who beat Ward over the glove. John Mitchell had the secondary assist, his first of the season.

"He made a good little backhand to me and we had them 3-on-2," Barrie said. "I went to shoot it and I didn't see anything, so I thought I would throw a fake in there and try to get him to bite. Fortunately I had a lot of net."

Jeff Skinner tied the game at 19:11 with a shot from a difficult angle. From the bottom of the left circle, Skinner sent a slap shot that deflected off Nikita Zadorov's stick and fooled Pickard. Lee Stempniak and Brett Pesce got the assists.

The Hurricanes killed a penalty at the start of overtime after Faulk tripped Mitchell in the final seconds of regulation.

They said it

"We've got some really fast players with a lot of skill. I feel confident going out there in overtime that we're going to get it done. We kind of let the skill take over." -- Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard

"We know the first four games of the road trip were unacceptable and there is no excuse for why we can't play like this all the time." -- Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog

"Coming out of four days off this is what it looks like. This isn't a surprise to anybody. We didn't skate, we didn't move the puck, we didn't execute. Everything was in the feet. There's no timing. That's what it looked like to me as a coach. It goes away before four days." -- Hurricanes coach Bill Peters

Need to know

Colorado is 6-1 in overtime this season. ... Pickard is 2-0-1 against the Hurricanes with a 1.04 goals-against average and .967 save percentage. ... Duchene won 18 of 24 faceoffs. ... Rask and Hurricanes forward Derek Ryan have gone 12 games without a point.

What's next

Avalanche: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday (8 p.m. ET; SUN, ALT, NHL.TV) Hurricanes: Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN-360, SN1, FS-CR, NHL.TV)

-- by Kurt Dusterberg for NHL.com --