The Colorado Avalanche fell to the Hurricanes, 5-2, Thursday night in Carolina. Here are three takeaways from the road loss:

Five-second magic

The Avs trailed 3-0 in the first period after a natural hat trick by Hurricanes center Martin Necas. But it laid the foundation for an incredible turnaround. Colorado scored twice in five seconds. It marked the fastest consecutive goals in team history.

Zach Parise finished a four-on-four rush with his first goal since joining the Avalanche. Samuel Girard followed it up with a knuckle puck from the blue line that somehow found the net. It all happened with less than a minute left before the first intermission.

Power outage

The Avalanche are 0-2-1 over their last three games. Among their biggest issues over that span is a struggling power play unit: 0-for-12. The Avs wasted all six of their opportunities in Carolina.

“That’s a big learning one for us,” defenseman Cale Makar said on the postgame Altitude TV broadcast. “We haven’t played a PK like that in a while in terms of (being) aggressive. … We’re just going to make sure we learn from it. Because our execution was not there on the power play.”

Lineup shuffle

How do you fix a winless streak out of the All-Star break? Shake up your lines. That’s exactly what Jared Bednar tried Thursday with significant changes to the Avalanche’s top-nine forwards to start the night:

—Artturi Lehkonen, back from a neck injury, rejoined the top unit with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

—Jonathan Drouin dropped back to the second line, where Ross Colton and Logan O’Connor joined him in elevated roles.

—Ryan Johansen centered the third line with wingers Zach Parise and Miles Wood.

Hurricanes 5, Avalanche 2

What happened: Colorado lost its third consecutive game on their long trip out of the All-Star break.

What went right: The Avs rallied to trail 3-2 after the first period with consecutive goals from Zach Parise and Samuel Girard.

What went wrong: The Hurricanes took a three-goal lead in the first period behind a Martin Necas natural hat trick. He scored on each of his first two shots on goal. The Hurricanes added to their advantage in the second period, 4-2, with a Michael Bunting power-play goal. Seth Jarvis finished the game with an empty netter.

Between the pipes: Alexandar Georgiev made 23-of-27 saves. Carolina’s Pyotr Kochetkov stopped 16 of Colorado’s 18 shots on goal. He was pulled after the first period and replaced by Antti Raanta. He made 9-of-9 saves to close the night.

What’s next: The Avalanche (32-16-4) face the Florida Panthers, 4 p.m. Saturday at Amerant Bank Arena.

Colorado Avalanche’s Bowen Byram (4) protects the puck from Carolina Hurricanes’ Jesperi Kotkaniemi (82) and Brendan Lemieux (28) during the second period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C., Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)

Karl B DeBlaker