Hurricanes rally in third but Avalanche pulls out 3-2 victory

The Carolina Hurricanes have reached the point of the season where every win can be a step toward making the playoffs and every regulation loss a step toward missing the playoffs.

The Canes took one of those losses and steps Friday.

Samuel Girard’s goal with 2:37 left in regulation gave the Colorado Avalanche a 3-2 victory at PNC Area. Goalie Pavel Francouz had a career-high 45 saves and Tyson Jost scored twice for the Avs (38-18-7), who won their fifth straight game.

How’s this for an excruciating loss: the Canes, stymied for two periods, got two goals in barely two minutes from forward Teuvo Teravainen in the third for a 2-2 tie. The sellout crowd was roaring, sensing a comeback victory.

Then Girard scored. And with a chance for the Canes to tie the score with an extra attacker in the final two minutes, defenseman Jaccob Slavin couldn’t hit an open net. The crowd could only groan on that one.

“We got a couple of goals and we got it back,” Teravainen said. “It’s just tough to lose that way.”

Girard, who scored his fourth of the season, was able to sneak in behind Canes winger Andrei Svechnikov and was unchecked in beating goalie Anton Forsberg, who played well and had 29 stops in his first NHL start since March 2018.

“Other than the result and the one gaffe we had at the end, I thought it was a great game and playing (against) a great team,” Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Good performances and zero points, as Brind’Amour well knows, can keep this team from getting where it wants to go — back to the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Canes (35-24-4), after a dagger of a loss, now must go on the road for six straight games starting Saturday against the Montreal Canadiens.

The Canes, beaten 4-1 by the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, went into Friday’s game two points out of wild-card playoff position in the Eastern Conference but with games in hand on the Columbus Blue Jackets, who held the second wild-card spot. They’re still two points out.

“Obviously we’re trying everything we can to get points,” Canes forward Jordan Martinook said. “It’s one play that kind of defines it, and it’s where we’re at. This time of the year, everything is magnified, every little play is just so important.

“These last two games definitely hurt. Moving forward there’s no time to ‘Woe is us, woe is me.’ We’ve got to go. Teams are winning around us and we need to get back to that. Obviously we’re on the outside looking in, so we need to get going and get some points.”

Sebastian Aho, who assisted on both Teravainen goals, extended his point streak to 14 games, the longest active streak in the NHL. Newly acquired defenseman Brady Skjei earned his first point with Carolina with an assist on the first goal, and Slavin set up Teravainen for his second.

The Canes, in the past three games, now have had five goaltenders: James Reimer, Petr Mrazek, David Ayres, Alex Nedeljkovic and Forsberg. Reimer and Mrazek were injured against Toronto. Ayres was the emergency backup goalie who came in and beat the Maple Leafs. Nedeljkovic then started and lost the game Tuesday against the Dallas Stars.

It was Forsberg’s turn Friday. Like Nedeljkovic, he was recalled Sunday from the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL to replace Reimer and Mrazek. Unlike Nedeljkovic, he had a lot more NHL experience to rely on — 45 games in all.

Forsberg’s last NHL start was March 26, 2018 with the Chicago Blackhawks, when he made 35 saves but was a 4-3 shootout loser against the San Jose Sharks.

It would have been easy for the Canes to become frustrated Friday. In the first period, Martinook hit the post with a shot — that after the Canes forward came out of the penalty box and got in a crunching hit. Svechnikov, whose 11-game point streak ended, also hit a post on a shot that glanced off Francouz.

It was a tough opening period for Teravainen. On one sequence, Aho carried the puck into the offensive zone, then made a crisp pass to set up Teravainen for an open shot in the slot. But Teravainen passed up the shot, forcing Aho to take a sharp-angle attempt.

Jost scored in the first after a turnover by Canes defenseman Jake Gardiner at the blue line. His second, in the second period, came after Svechnikov failed to clear the puck out of the zone and Jost was able to get behind the defense to beat Forsberg.

“I still have a lot of confidence in these guys,” Brind’Amour said. “That was a tough game for sure. You’ve got to turn the page.”