In Denver, the visiting Carolina Hurricanes lost full control of first in the Metropolitan Division on Saturday when they lost 7-4 to Avalanche, and the New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-0. 
Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves in the Colorado win.
“Obviously, really happy to get the top seed in our division,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It gives us home ice for a round or two. And then the overall race, like I’ve said before, it’s not the be-all-end-all, but it’s something that we had as a goal from the start of the season, to put ourselves in the best position to succeed.”
Jordan Staal had two goals for the Hurricanes.
“Let’s be honest, they’ve got good players,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “I don’t know that it was a total gong show for us, but it was just, we gave up too much early, [and] then we fought back. We always do. But like I said, you can’t spot a team that many goals and expect to have success.”
The Avalanche moved to 55-14-6.
J.T. Compher and Nathan MacKinnon each hit for doubles for the Avs.
“I think we could have been a little bit better defensively, but we did a good job of staying calm throughout the game,” Compher said. “They made a push. They’re a good team. They didn’t give up, and we managed to stay calm and come out with a victory.”
Carolina dropped to 48-20-8.
“Our power play was good, so there’s a bright spot, but our penalty kill was no good. That was the difference in the game,” Brind’Amour said. “We gave up two power-play goals. It kind of put us behind, but we were too sloppy and gave up too many good chances, and that team’s too good to play that way.”
The Avs’ Ben Meyers scored his first NHL goal in his fist NH:L game.
“I kind of just blanked out,” Meyers said of his goal. “Wasn’t thinking much, but it was a pretty special moment. Great plays by my linemates (Logan O’Connor and Andrew Cogliano) to take it to the net, and I was just fortunate to get the rebound there.”
Mikko Rantanen and Alexander Kerfoot added single markers for Colorado.
Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina.
“It’s never fun to watch your teammates go down,” Aho said. “We’re facing some adversity right now [and] we’ll see what are we about right now. Things haven’t gone our way lately and a couple very big players go down for us tonight. These are the moments that our team has to come together. We’ll come back stronger and I’m 100 percent confident that’s what will happen.”
Frederik Andersen got the start for the Canes and yielded seven goals while making 26 saves.
He left the game in the third period with an apparent injury.
Antti Raanta made four saves in relief
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