Avalanche 4, Hurricanes 2
DENVER -- Matt Duchene scored twice and added an assist while Erik Johnson and Alex Tanguay also scored goals as the Colorado Avalanche matched the best start in franchise history with a 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday
Semyon Varlamov stopped 28 shots to help Colorado improve to 9-1. The 18 points in 10 games equals the start by the 1995 Quebec Nordiques and 2000-01 Avalanche.
Drayson Brown and Andrej Sekera scored goals for the Hurricanes, who dropped their second straight.
The injury-riddled Hurricanes suffered another blow Friday when forward Radek Dvorak left the game after two periods with a lower body injury.
Dvorak's injury comes a night after No. 1 goalie Cam Ward was lost to a lower body injury in the Hurricanes' loss to Minnesota.
Ward's absence opened the door for Justin Peters to make his first start of the season. Peters, who took the loss when he came on for Ward against the Wild, had 30 saves Friday but it wasn't enough against the streaking Avalanche.
After being outshot in five of their last six games, the Avalanche went on the offensive from the start. They held an 18-8 shot advantage in the first period and increased it to 26-14 after two.
The pressure paid off with an early 2-0 lead.
Johnson scored the first goal when he knocked in Paul Stastny's rebound with his skate midway through the first. The goal stood after a review showed Johnson didn't kick it in.
The Hurricanes killed off 1:48 of a Colorado 5-on-3 power play, but Duchene made it 2-0 when he skated from behind the net and beat Peters with a wraparound shot that went through the goalie's legs.
Carolina sliced the lead in half when Bowman scored 12 seconds into the second period. It was his first goal of the season.
Colorado regained a two-goal lead midway through the second when Duchene fed Tanguay in front for his third goal of the season.
Duchene's eighth goal 36 seconds into the third period made it 4-1, but Sekera answered two minutes later with his first goal of the season to make it 4-2.
Carolina had a great chance to pull closer on the power play midway through the third, but Varlamov made a glove save on Alexander Semin with 8:24 left to preserve the two-goal lead.
The Hurricanes pulled Peters for an extra attacker with 1:42 remaining but couldn't get a shot on Varlamov.
NOTES: Hurricanes D Tim Gleason was back in the lineup after missing 10 games due to a concussion while RW Patrick Dwyer missed his second straight game with an upper-body injury. ... The Avalanche entered Friday with the top-ranked penalty kill in the NHL at 90.3 percent. ... Carolina recalled G Mike Murphy from Charlotte of the AHL to serve as Peters' emergency backup. ... Colorado LW Cody McLeod served the third game of his five-game suspension for his hit on Detroit D Niklas Kronwall on Oct. 17.
