Improved depth, dynamite special teams keep Avalanche rolling past depleted Hurricanes

The Colorado Avalanche is steamrolling teams to start the 2023-24 season, and the opponent Saturday night was the best of the lot to date.

Colorado fell behind in the middle of the second period, but rolled to a 6-4 victory against the Carolina Hurricanes behind an avalanche of goals in the second half of the middle stanza. The Avs scored four times in a span of seven minutes and 14 seconds to blow open what had been a frenetic back-and-forth affair.

“I think we started working harder, because all of a sudden the game was in jeopardy,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “At the start of the second period, they started to outwork us. We were missing assignments on the defensive side, giving up too many scoring chances, taking penalties.

“Then I think we finally woke up a little bit.”

The Avs are now 5-0 to start the season and have affirmed all of the preseason hype about being one of the top teams in the NHL. They’ve defeated three playoff teams from a year ago, including the Hurricanes, who reached the conference finals last season and are a popular pick to go one round further this spring.

Now, there are some significant caveats about Saturday night. This was billed as a potential Stanley Cup Final preview when the Hurricanes arrived in Denver. But this version of their lineup was not close to whole. Carolina was missing its top two forwards, one of its top three defensemen and its starting goaltender.

It is still a deep, talented team, and the Hurricanes gave the Avs fits for the first half of the game. Their relentless forechecking style caused disruptions on even simple breakout plays.

Eventually, the Avs found their way around and through the Hurricanes, and third-string goalie Pytor Kochetkov did not offer nearly enough resistance.

The penalty kill has been a surprise bright spot to start the season, but Colorado’s power play showed up in a big way with three goals against a Hurricanes’ PK that has consistently been among the league’s elite for years.

Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar both had fantastic individual efforts to set up extra-man tallies from Ryan Johansen and Artturi Lehkonen. Mikko Rantanen added to Carolina’s misery with a third on a long-range wrist shot in the final seconds of the second period.

“In my opinon, that’s the best defenseman in the world and the best forward in the world,” Johansen said of Makar and MacKinnon. “That’s just them doing what they do. The type of leaders they are, they want to do that every night. It’s been fun to be part of it. We cannot leave Mikko out of that. The things he does, he’s a very, very special talent as well, and really helps make this group click.”

One of the biggest storylines of the offseason was the improved depth Colorado amassed through trades and free agency. Johansen had his best game with the Avs, scoring a goal, setting up another and winning multiple key faceoffs that led to scores.

Another new center, Fredrik Olofsson, scored his first goal with the Avalanche. That was part of a big night for the club’s fourth line. Logan O’Connor scored a shorthanded goal for the third straight game — tying a franchise record held by Joe Sakic — and set up Olofsson’s tally.

“It’s pretty special,” said Olofsson, who moved to Broomfield before eighth grade and spent three years with the Colorado Thunderbirds youth program. “It was fun to just get going, but there’s a lot of other things in my game that I want to focus on.”

Alexandar Georgiev won for the fifth time to start this season as well. This wasn’t his best outing of the year, but he did make a flurry of saves during an early Carolina power play and a couple on point-blank attempts that made a difference in a game that threatened to turn into a 1980s-style shootout. Georgiev and the Avs had allowed four goals total in the first four games before Saturday night.

The PK streak came to an end midway through the second. Brent Burns snapped a shot from the right circle past Georgiev. Stefan Noesen had a near-perfect screen in front. Colorado negated the first 19 power-play chances for their opponents, which is a franchise record to start a season.