The three-game sweep of the NHL slate from Tuesday starts in Raleigh where the Carolina Hurricanes are finding their offense to match their defense. In a tight match with the visiting Colorado Avalanche, the Canes managed a 3-2 shootout win.
“We’ve done a good job of keeping teams from getting really good chances, and now we’re starting to create the offense too,” said Carolina forward Jordan Staal, who scored 
his first goal of the season after missing three months with a broken leg. “Tonight was another night when there were a lot of good chances to score goals. If we keep playing like that, hopefully we get on a roll.”
Avs goalie Calvin Pickard needed to make 44 saves in the game to keep Colorado in the game.
“Is it the fact that we played (Monday a reason for) the slow start?” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “I don’t like to attribute it to that. We had so many turnovers and giveaways. We were not sharp at all. Carolina was skating well and seemed to be fresh. Sometimes it makes a big difference.”
Anton Khudobin made 28 saves for the Canes’ win.
“The guys did the right job,” said Khudobin. “I was supposed to have the shot and they were supposed to have the back door. I just pretty much fumbled in my own skates.”
Matt Duchene‘s goal early in the third started the Avs rally from a 2-0 deficit.
“We were definitely better, but to give up that early goal after a neutral zone faceoff win is disappointing,” Peters said. “[Colorado] did a real good job of building the game, playing back-to-back. When they turn it up, they’re a dangerous group.”
In Nashville, the Predators continued their winning ways with a convincing 5-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks.
The story of the game may be the injury to Pekka Rinne who suffered the proverbial lower body injury when a collision shoved him into the back boards.
“No I didn’t [think the injury was bad originally], but you never know,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. “You just never know.”
Carter Hutton relieved Rinne and stopped all 10 shots he faced.
“You don’t think about it, you just do it,” Hutton said. “It’s just the hockey. We’re pretty programmed, we practice hard. I always prepare like I’m going to play, and you go through the same routine. You just get in there and try to get into it right away. It almost helps to get some shots right away, kind of finding a flow.”
The Preds built a 2-0 lead before the Canucks managed a goal on Rinne.
“Anytime that you’re down 2-0, it’s tough to battle back,” Canucks forward Henrik Sedin said. “But we stayed with it, we played hard, we got the goal in the second period. Again, we’re taking too many penalties, and we gave them a chance to get back in the game on a power play, which lost all of the momentum we had.”
The Canucks are struggling of late and Nashville pushed hard to get the win.
“Vancouver played hard,” Laviolette said. “You lose a couple of games, your urgency to win ratchets up. They played an ultra-aggressive game on their forecheck and their time and space on pucks. It was really tight. I thought it was really tight after the two goals to start, there wasn’t a lot of room out there either way. There wasn’t a ton of scoring chances either way. We got going and were able to capitalize in the third and get some goals at the end there.”
In Glendale, the Sharks’ Brenden Dillon scored off an odd shot and beat Devon Dubnyk five-hole to give San Jose a 3-2 lead they held for the win.
“I’ll save this puck. It was the first goal with the Sharks and it was a big one,” said Dillon. “It’s nice to get that off my chest. I’ve been working on shooting and getting pucks on the net and to get a bounce like that is exciting.”
It was Dillon’s first goal in 62 games and first as a Sharks since be traded from the Dallas Stars.
“It was an evenly played game and it was up to which team could elevate their game a little bit,” San Jose coach Todd McLellan said. “We’ll take the bounce that went our way and move on. I talked to Brenden about 10 days ago on his ability to shoot the puck and wanting to shoot and believing he can get it through. It was good to see him rewarded.”
Joe Pavelski and Tomas Hertl scored for San Jose and Antti Niemi made 26 saves in the win.
“We played a great hockey game and a disappointing bounce costs us,” Dubnyk said. “You make a read on a shot off the wall that probably not on net and we get an unfortunate bounce. It’s a disappointing finish and to have one like that go in is frustrating.”
The Coyotes found some of their game Tuesday but a bad bounce cost them points.
“Our effort was excellent. We competed hard but came up a little short,” Arizona coach Dave Tippett said. “We get beat by a goal that goes off our toe, which is an unfortunate break. When your margin for error is very slim and you’re hopefully in tight games, you have to give yourself a chance to win by doing the right things.”
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