RALEIGH, N.C. — The Avalanche put on quite a parade Sunday, only it wasn't the kind that involves marching bands and floats.

One player after another skated to the penalty box, where the Avalanche spent a total of 23 minutes while watching Matt Cullen collect his first career hat trick and the Carolina Hurricanes cruise to a 5-2 victory before a sellout crowd of 18,680 at the RBC Center.

The Avalanche also saw its modest winning streak snapped at three games while losing to the Carolina/Hartford franchise for the first time in 13 years.

"I thought physically we played extremely hard early," coach Tony Granato said. "We didn't play the smartest game; we played hard. Obviously, the momentum they got from being on the power play pretty much in the first period - it seemed like all night - they did a good job and made some plays."

The Avalanche matched its season high by being short-handed eight times - four times in the first period.

Colorado killed off all the penalties, but it exerted plenty of energy while doing so.

"Some of the calls . . . I wish they would let us play a little bit more, but they called it tight and it wore us down," Granato said. "All those power plays that they had gave them momentum, gave them life. We did a good job killing penalties, but it took a lot out of us."

A victory would have pulled the Avalanche to four points of the eighth and final playoff position in the Western Conference. Instead, Colorado still is stuck in 15th place, six points behind with 22 games to play.

"We definitely took too many penalties," said Wojtek Wolski, who got the Avalanche off to an encouraging start with a goal 59 seconds into the game. "We have to be a little smarter. We just gave them too many opportunities. They played well, but I think we helped them a lot."

Even Milan Hejduk, who was assessed only four minor penalties in the first 59 games, took high sticking and tripping infractions in the opening period.

"It wears your penalty killers down and the guys that aren't on the 'PK' unit, it doesn't allow them to stay in the flow of the game," Granato said. "You're hurt on both ends of it.

"The more penalties we took and the more we had to use the same killers over and over, the more the other guys sat there, the more (the Hurricanes) got their legs going."

As well as the Avalanche played Friday in Washington, it self-destructed against the Hurricanes, who enjoyed a 39-19 advantage in shots and pulled one point out of the final playoff spot in the East.

"We were physical, but sometimes we weren't too smart," said Ian Laperriere, who needed help leaving the ice at the end of the first period after he blocked two shots with his foot while killing a penalty.

"There's a fine line between being physical and being smart. We crossed it. They didn't score (on power plays), but they took momentum. We killed them, but they gained momentum.

"By being in our zone all the time, they get momentum building. Even if they don't score, they get their legs under them and they get more confident, and we're more tired."

Darcy Tucker's first goal in 20 games forged a 2-2 tie at 2:12 of the second period, and the Avalanche had a chance to take the lead with a power play as the period was winding down.

But Wolski tripped Eric Staal with 59 seconds left on the man advantage, and the Hurricanes went ahead for good on Joni Pitkanen's rebound goal at 17:06 while the teams were skating four aside.

Ryan Bayda made it 4-2 at 8:49 of the third period on a wraparound into a half-empty net after goalie Andrew Raycroft wasn't able to control a rebound following an Avalanche turnover.

Cullen completed the scoring - and his hat trick - with an empty-net goal with 32 seconds remaining.

"We played a real desperate team, and they played hard," Adam Foote said. "They were on the puck, they were in our face. They were really moving."

JUNIOR TIGERS FINISH SECOND: The Avalanche-sponsored Colorado Springs Junior Tigers finished second in the 50th annual Quebec International Hockey Tournament in Quebec City. The Tigers lost 3-1 to the Hershey (Pa.) Bears 3-1 in Sunday's Class B final. They posted a 4-2 record in the tournament.