*Photo from Mile High Hockey*
In a battle of storms, the Hurricane emerged on top. Teuvo Teravainen had 4 assists, Martin Necas had a hat trick, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Colorado Avalanche with a 5-2 victory on Thursday night in Raleigh.
In his 330th game, Necas netted the first hat trick of his career, getting a natural hat trick in the first period. In addition to big games from Necas and Teravainen, Brent Burns also chipped in two assists for the Hurricanes, who are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games.
Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind'Amour said of Necas that "Necas is a talent, we know that. Sometimes it goes away for a little while, but it’s always there. When you’re that good a player, you can have games like that, where you just explode."
Early in the game, Necas gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead when he scored 1:52 into the game, his 14th goal of the season. At the 6:25 mark of the first, Necas scored his second goal of the game to make it 2-0 with Teravainen and Burns getting assists. Necas capped off the hat trick at the 16:51 mark of the period to make it a 3-0 game.
With 27 seconds left in the period, Zach Parise scored his first goal with the Avalanche to make it 3-1. Just 5 seconds later, Sam Girard scored his 3rd goal of the season to cut the deficit to 3-2. Michael Bunting scored the only goal of the second period and Seth Jarvis scored in the 3rd period, making it a 5-2 win for the Hurricanes.
Necas said after the game that "On the third goal, Teravainen just found me there, kind of battling in front. And a nice pass by Burnsie. We’ve got some good players here, so you want to get open and be ready to shoot it."
Pyotr Kochetkov started for the Hurricanes and allowed two goals on 8 shots before he was pulled. Antti Raanta came on in relief and stopped all 9 shots he faced before leaving due to a lower body injury. That forced Kochetkov back in for the 3rd period, where he stopped the final 10 shots he faced to get the win and bump his record up to 12-8-3.
It was Alexandar Georgiev who started for the Avalanche, getting tagged with the loss as his record fell to 27-12-3 in 42 starts. Georgiev turned aside 23 out of the 27 shots on goal the Hurricanes had, giving him a .852 save percentage.
Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said of the loss that "I thought our guys played extremely hard tonight. You kind of take the slow start and them winning the special teams battle makes a difference in the hockey game."
Both teams get back in action on Saturday night. Kochetkov is the projected starter for the Hurricanes when they host the New Jersey Devils, while Georgiev is expected to start for the Avalanche when they take on the Florida Panthers.
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