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Hurricanes aim to end trip with a win

Dec 11, 2006 - 3:53 PM Carolina (15-12-4) at Colorado (13-14-2) 9:00 pm EST

DENVER (Ticker) -- The road has not been friendly to the defending champions.

The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes finish their four-game road trip in search of their first victory when they take on the Colorado Avalanche on Monday.

Offense has been a problem for the Hurricanes on their trip out west as they have only scored four goals in their three games so far.

Their most interesting game of the trek was the last one, a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.

The Hurricanes fell behind, 3-0, early in the third period, but stormed back with three unanswered goals as Craig Adams, Erik Cole and Mike Commodore scored to tie the game, 3-3, before the Canucks won the game in overtime.

A killer for the Hurricanes was the power play unit, which surrendered four power-play goals in nine opportunities.

The Avalanche have been struggling lately as well, losing three of their last four.

Colorado has been maddeningly inconsistent. It defeated one of the best teams in the Western Conference, the San Jose Sharks, 5-2, on Thursday, then turned around and dropped a 5-4 decision to the Los Angeles Kings, one of the weaker teams in the conference on Saturday.

Joe Sakic scored a goal and added an assist while Antti Laaksonen, John-Michael Liles and Pierre Turgeon scored the other goals. Turgeon was just activated last week after off-season shoulder surgery.