Avs stay perfect with 6-4 win over Carolina

In Denver, the Avalanche’s Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves in a 6-4 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night.

Logan O’Connor scored his third shorthanded goal in his third straight game for the Avs.

“I thought I had a pretty good step on [the defense], and I felt like [Hurricanes goalie Pyotr Kochetkov] was maybe a little far out,” O’Connor said. “The other two I’d shot, and that one I felt as though a deke might be a better move there.”

The Avs have won their first five games of the season.

“We’ve done a good job to start the year. I’m happy with the results, but I know that it’s nowhere near as good as we can play,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re going to keep pushing to get there as quick and as fast as we can, to get to the top of our game and then be able to maintain it, and then really hone in on the habits.”

The Canes took a 1-0 lead at 16:09 of the first period on a strike by Jesperi Kotkaniemi .

“It was a tough game because I felt like we were doing pretty good, doing some good things,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “Obviously, special teams just ate us up. It’s not like we were giving up a ton, but just every time they had that opportunity, man they put it in the back of the net, and that’s what a great team does.”

Ryan Johansen tied it with six seconds left in the first, the goal coming off the power play.

“I was just sitting on the back side where, if he put it to the net or shot it or tried to hit me back side like he did, I was just in a spot to tap it in,” Johansen said. “Give Carolina credit — great hockey team. They made some plays, and then I felt like we turned it up and took over the game. That’s what you need to do.”

O’Connor scored at 1:57 of the second to give the Avs a 2-1 advantage.

“He’s one of the hardest working guys we got, and he’s competitive as can be,” Bednar said. “He wants to win, and he’ll accept any role and whatever tasks you give him. He’s just happy to try and help and do his best while he’s doing it. Need to drag that out of our entire roster, that type of mentality.”

Brent Burns retied the game 9:17 into the second for Carolina, 2-2.

Michael Bunting gave the Canes a 3-2 lead at 10:42 of the second.

“We’re scoring enough goals, and we just can’t stop anything from going in our net. Special teams is a part of it,” Brind’Amour said. “Right now our kill’s just atrocious. Everything’s going in. So we’re going to have to readjust that a little bit, obviously.”

Colorado tied it at 12:21 of the frame on a marker from Fredrik Olofsson .

“First [goal] with the team is pretty special,” Olofsson said. “It’s always nice to get to swing the game the right way, and then after that we kind of rallied, got some power-play goals too, and then it felt like we had it.”

Artturi Lehkonen (power play), Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen (power play)

The Canes’ Jacob Slavin scored at 12:26 of the third for the 6-4 final.then scored to give the Avs a 6-4 advantage.