Ducks start strong but fall to Avalanche

ANAHEIM — For the Ducks, a promising start with parallels to Wednesday’s triumph receded into Friday’s defeat at the hands of some of the most gifted mitts in the NHL, those of Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and the Colorado Avalanche, who prevailed, 4-2, at Honda Center.

The Ducks had won consecutive games for just the second time this season and were looking for their second three-game surge of the campaign after toppling the league-leading Winnipeg Jets two nights earlier. Following a wobbly 25 minutes, Colorado had other ideas, as it won its second game in two nights and was victorious for the sixth time in eight outings to end a stretch with 13 of 17 dates on the road.

Colorado had beaten the Ducks 4-3 in overtime in Denver on Oct. 18, but that was a game in which Leo Carlsson said the Ducks got “demolished.” Despite the more disparate final, it felt like the Ducks played considerably better on Friday.

“It was an overtime loss, but there was a huge advantage for them in terms of shots, shot attempts and all that other stuff,” Ducks coach Greg Cronin said. “Tonight, it was a real solid game for us.”

Carlsson and Alex Killorn scored for the Ducks. John Gibson made 19 saves, including a penalty shot by Samuel Girard with 5:24 left in the third period, but he lost for the fifth time in six starts.

The big three of Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen combined for two goals and seven points. Valeri Nichushkin contributed a goal and an assist. Parker Kelly also scored, shorthanded, in support of Scott Wedgewood, who made 30 saves.

Colorado completed a full-spectrum assortment of goals with a power-play marker, an even-strength tally, a short-handed goal and an empty-netter by MacKinnon with 1:19 left, just 32 seconds after the Ducks failed to convert on a power play.

“I felt like we played a pretty good game [five-on-five], but we switched things up and it didn’t work out; we were just ice cold,” Carlsson said.

With 6:55 to play, the Ducks drew within a goal when a broken play off the rush struck gold. A disrupted pass into the slot was backhanded toward the net by Pavel Mintyukov and changed direction off of Killorn’s stick for his seventh goal of the season.

A mere 3:30 into the third period, Makar and his power-play unit finally knocked down the door they’d been banging on all night. MacKinnon’s seam pass from the left corner to the right faceoff circle set up Makar’s short-side scorcher to make it 3-1.

The Ducks transferred their energy from the opening frame into the middle one, scoring early in the second period, but lost some luster en route to a 2-1 deficit at the second intermission.

Colorado took its first lead of the night 10:57 into the second period. A rush where the Avs didn’t have numbers – it started out two-on-four and became three-on-four when Makar joined – still turned into a goal. Makar trailed the play and let fly with a wrist shot that squirted through Gibson to be pushed across the goal line by Nichushkin.

“It’s just one of those plays where our guys are working so hard to get back. You back-check so hard and there’s another level that comes, a layer,” Killorn said. “When you have guys like MacKinnon and Makar, it’s really hard when they’re coming at you with that kind of speed, especially in the middle of the ice.”

Just under five minutes into the period, the Ducks had a power play and a chance to go up two goals, but instead it was Kelly’s man-down marker knotting the score at 6:40. The Ducks won a faceoff and sustained some pressure, but Logan O’Connor gobbled up a loose puck to create an odd-man rush that culminated in Kelly’s snipe in space. It was just the second short-handed goal the Ducks had given up this season and their first five-on-four goal allowed.

Makar had nearly gotten the Avs on the board when MacKinnon’s silky cross-ice feed left him with a dangerous shot that he placed perfectly between Gibson’s glove and pad. Gibson would later rob Makar on a searing shot from the slot at the end of a power play.

The Ducks had kicked off the scoring at the 2:40 mark when Carlsson deflected Jacob Trouba’s shot past Wedgewood. It was Carlsson’s seventh goal and his first since Nov. 19, as well as his first point in five games since returning from an upper-body injury. The primary assist was Trouba’s first point as a Duck after being acquired from the New York Rangers on Dec. 8.

“I thought Leo played really well. When he’s skating, he’s really hard to play against,” Killorn said.

For a second straight game, the Ducks dominated an A-list roster in the first period, but they had no goals to show for it. Bringing much of the mojo and moxie they did against Winnipeg on Wednesday, the Ducks out-shot the Avalanche 12-5 despite also having 11 shot attempts blocked to just two for Colorado. Per Natural Stat Trick, the Ducks had all five high-danger chances in the frame and more than twice as many total scoring opportunities.

“A lot of times when you have a shot advantage like that and you have quality chances that reflect the shot totals [but] you don’t score, you feel it could be a tough night,” Cronin said. “I looked at the shot totals after the first period, it was like 12-4 for us, and we had a goose egg. But we played well, we played well defensively, and it’s frustrating we didn’t get at least a point.”