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 league, those of Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon 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 48 two days 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 its past eight outings.
Leo 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 Mikko Rantanen combined for two goals and seven points. Valeri Nichushkin contributed a goal and an assist. Parker Kelly also scored, short-handed, in support of Scott Wedgewood, who made 29 saves.
Troy Terry drew a late penalty but the Ducks failed to convert on the power play and, 32 seconds later, allowed an empty-netter to MacKinnon with 1:19 remaining in the match.
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 had 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 found themselves on their heels late 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.
Just under five minutes into the period, the Ducks had a power play and a chance to go up by 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 pounced on 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 allowed this season and their first five-on-four goal allowed.
Makar had nearly gotten the Ducks 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. He later robbed 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.
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.
More to come on this story.