The Hurricanes lost a game Saturday night, but they potentially lost a whole lot more than that.
Stalwart starting goalie Frederik Andersen, whose 35 wins this season are among the best in the NHL, and Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal left the team’s road game at the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night with injuries, adding injury to the insult that was already obvious on the scoreboard.
J.T. Compher and Nathan MacKinnon had a pair of goals each for the Avalanche, who led by as many as four and never let the Hurricanes back within two after that, in a 7-4 win at Ball Arena on Saturday.
In a game that began by featuring two of the league’s best goaltenders, it was offense that ruled the night in Colorado, the teams combining for 11 goals on a pair of goalies with sparking records this season.
But the injuries — and the potential ramifications for the Hurricanes heading into the playoffs — were the real story.
Andersen injured late in the third
Andersen appeared to tweak his left leg on a sequence midway through the third, and he stumbled backward into the net. As he tried to get up, he did a pushup-like exercise, shook out his left leg, and resumed his goalie stance.
But moments later, another shot came in from distance, and the keeper flashed his right pad. His left leg dragged awkwardly behind. He immediately grimaced in pain.
After a brief chat with the team’s training staff, he was helped off the ice, putting no weight on his left leg.
Antti Raanta played out the final minutes of the game.
Staal injured after big hit
With the Canes trying furiously to come back in the third period, Staal, who had two goals in the second to give Carolina a boost, and whose line was a catalyst all night — and has been for the past month or more — skated slowly off the ice and subsequently walked slowly down the hallway behind the Hurricanes bench and to the locker room.
The reason: As he went to dump and chase the puck along the left wall near the faceoff circle in the Avs zone, Cale Makar stepped into the Canes captain with his shoulder soiree to Staal’s upper chest. The jolt stopped Staal in his tracks, his head bobbing forward briefly before his whole body crumbled to the ice.
He landed on his backside, and his head never hit the ice, but he was nonetheless stunned. He skated on his own power to the defensemen’s door at the Canes’ bench and made his way under his own power back to the team’s locker room.
Tough opening act
Another slow start — something that has intermittently plagued the Canes for the past month — afforded the Avalanche a two-goal lead after 20 minutes, a lead that ballooned two four in the early minutes of the second. Frustrated, coach Rod Brind’Amour burned his timeout to settle the team down, but he said very little, instead letting the players stew over the situation, and rest. Staal had a few words for the rest of the team, and Brind’Amour chimed in near the end of the break.
Staal then put the puck where his mouth was, potting a pair of goals to give the Canes life. But while the teams combined for another five goals in the second half of the game, the Avs made sure they maintained their advantage.
First-period woes
The Canes had a few solid looks on the first power play attempt of the game, capped by a double deflection on a shot in from the point that Avs keeper Darcy Kuemper tracked down and smothered. Carolina had the extra skater in the first place thanks to Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s work in the low slot, drawing a penalty on Josh Manson. The power play fizzled, though, when Nino Niederreiter took a penalty of his own in the offensive zone, and that led to the first goal of the contest.
With the man advantage, the Avalanche gained control of the puck in the offensive zone. Andre Burakovsky wrangled the puck on the side wall, slid it to Alex Newhook, who spun and fed the puck to J.T. Compher in the lower left slot for the easy score past a sliding Andersen.
The Avs made it 2-0 at 10:48 of the first when Nathan MacKinnon poked a third-chance rebound past Andersen, who made the initial save on a Mikko Rantanen shot and the follow-up on Valeri Nichushkin before McKinnon found the cage.
The teams traded power plays on overlapping penalties later in the first, but neither team converted.
