Carolina's Martin Necas produced his first career hat trick in the first 17 minutes as the Hurricanes defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-2 on Thursday night at Raleigh, N.C.
Michael Bunting and Seth Jarvis also scored for the Hurricanes, and Teuvo Teravainen had three assists as Carolina won for the fourth time in five games.
It was far from smooth despite holding a 3-0 lead. Goalie Pyotr Kochetkov was pulled after the first period after yielding two late goals, but he was called back for the third after Antti Raanta sustained a lower-body injury. Kochetkov finished with 16 saves and Raanta stopped all nine shots in the second.
Zach Parise, in his third game with the Avalanche after he was signed as a free agent, and Samuel Girard scored in a 5-second span late in the first period for Colorado. Alexandar Georgiev was dinged for three goals from Necas across the first four shots in faced, but he ended up with 22 saves.
Necas has 16 goals this season. His goals reflected the second-fastest recording of a hat trick in Hurricanes history.
Necas scored 1:52 into the game, collecting the puck in his own zone and going through the neutral zone before firing a shot that hit off Georgiev with the puck trickling into the net.
His next goal came as he plastered a shot coming down the slot for his 15th tally of the season at 6:25. For the third goal, he took a pass from Teravainen in front of the net and converted at 16:51 before the ice was showered with hats.
The Avalanche, which are 0-2-1 since the All-Star break, got on the board with the two goals in the final minute of the first period.
Parise's first goal with the Avalanche came on a 4-on-4 situation. Girard scored off the ensuing face-off, firing the puck on net from just across the center stripe for his third goal of the season.
More must-reads: