RALEIGH, N.C. _ The Carolina Hurricanes have reached the point of the season where every win could be a step toward making the playoffs and every regulation loss a step toward missing the playoffs.
The Canes took one of those losses and steps Friday. The Colorado Avalanche took a 3-2 victory at PNC Arena, getting the winning goal from defenseman Samuel Girard with 2:37 left in the third period.
Tyson Jost, who had scored five goals in 59 games for the Avs, scored twice for a 2-0 lead after two periods. But the Canes, stymied by goalie Pavel Francouz for two periods, answered strongly in the third as forward Teuvo Teravainen scored twice for a 2-2 tie.
Francouz finished with career-high 45 saves for the Avs (38-18-7), who won their fifth straight.
The Canes (35-24-4) went into the game two points out of wild-card playoff position in the Eastern Conference but with games in hand on the Columbus Blue Jackets, who held the second wild-card spot. With 20 games left in the regular season, it was crunch time.
Sebastian Aho, who assisted on both Teravainen goals, extended his point streak to 14 games. Newly acquired defenseman Brady Skjei earned his first point with Carolina with an assist on the first goal, and defenseman Jaccob Slavin set up Teravainen for his second barely two minutes later.
The Canes, in the past three games, have had five goaltenders: James Reimer, Petr Mrazek, David Ayres, Alex Nedeljkovic and Anton Forsberg.
Reimer and Mrazek were injured against Toronto. Ayres, as most people now know, was the emergency backup goalie who came in and beat the Maple Leafs. Nedeljkovic then started and lost the game Tuesday against the Dallas Stars.
It was Forsberg's turn Friday. Like Nedeljkovic, he was recalled from the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL on Sunday to replace Reimer and Mrazek. Unlike Mrazek, he had a lot more NHL experience to rely on _ 45 games in all.
Forsberg's last NHL start was March 26, 2018 with the Chicago Blackhawks, when he made 35 saves but was a 4-3 shootout loser against the San Jose Sharks.
It would have been easy for the Canes to become frustrated Friday. In the first period, Jordan Martinook hit the post with a shot _ that after the Canes forward came out of the penalty box and got in a crunching hit on the Avs' Vladislav Kamenev. Andrei Svechnikov also hit a post on a shot that glanced off Francouz.
It also was a tough opening period for Teravainen. On one sequence, Aho carried the puck into the offensive zone, then made a crisp pass to set up Teravainen for an open shot in the slot. But Teravainen passed up the shot, forcing Aho to take a sharp-angle attempt.
On an early third-period power play, Aho had a shot hit one post, hit Francouz and then hit the other post.
Jost scored in the first after a turnover by Canes defenseman Jake Gardiner at the blue line. His second, in the second period, came after Svechnkov failed to clear the puck out of the zone and Jost was able to get behind the defense to get in and beat Forsberg.
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