RALEIGH, N.C. _ Brock McGinn has always been a physical player, capable of hits that hurt.
He has developed into an effective, aggressive penalty killer, filling that valuable role for the Carolina Hurricanes.
But McGinn is proving he can score at the NHL level, and his two goals Saturday helped the Canes to a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Avalanche at PNC Arena.
Jeff Skinner picked up his 16th goal of the season and goalie Cam Ward earned his 16th win with 29 saves for Carolina (26-21-9), which moved into wild-card playoff position in the Eastern Conference with 61 points.
For the first 40 minutes of the game, all the scoring was compressed into a span of 18 seconds.
Defenseman Tyson Barrie scored for the Avs at 16:51 of the first period.
McGinn answered for the Canes at 17:09.
Two goals, 18 seconds. Other than that, Ward and the Avs' Semyon Varlamov were making all the stops.
Until McGinn, again, scored early in the third.
McGinn's first goal came after some strong forechecking by Elias Lindholm. So did the second as Lindholm set up the two quick strikes by McGinn.
Ward made an acrobatic play in the first period to rob the Avs' Gabriel Bourque. Ward thrust out his left pad on the shot, the puck bouncing on top of Ward's pad before Ward scissored his legs to smother it.
The Canes' penalty killers did the job early in the second period. Canes forward Teuvo Teravainen bloodied Avs forward J.T. Compher with a high stick but the Canes killed off all four minutes of the double minor.
Ward was a big part of that. So were McGinn along with defensemen Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce. The best offensive chance in the four minutes might have been a McGinn backhander on a short-handed attempt.
Lee Stempniak and Sebastian Aho assisted on Skinner's goal, Stempniak getting off a backhander in the slot and Skinner following up on the rebound.
The Canes caught a break as the Avs, who have had a 10-game winning streak this season, played without injured forward Nathan MacKinnon, their leading scorer.
On Friday, the Vancouver Canucks were missing rookie forward Brock Boeser, who has 26 goals, in a 4-1 loss to Carolina.
The Canes' eight-game homestand, their longest of the season ends Tuesday against the Los Angeles Kings.
