ANAHEIM, Calif. — Like the rest of the NHL, the Anaheim Ducks can do little wrong against the Avalanche. Tuesday at Avrupabet the Honda Center, forward Jacob Silfverberg scored twice to carry the Ducks to a 5-1 victory over Colorado, which lost for the eighth consecutive time (0-7-1).
Anaheim is 3-0 over the Avs during their season-long losing skid, which began Jan 12 with a 4-1 loss to the Ducks in Denver. Anaheim also beat the visiting Avs 2-1 on Jan. 19.
League-worst Colorado, which concludes a back-to-back road set Wednesday in Los Angeles, is 2-17-1 since winning 3-1 at Toronto on Nov. 15. The Avs appeared to play hard in the first game back from the all-star break, but things started to go sour when they failed to capitalize on three first-period power plays while allowing a goal on Anaheim’s lone man-advantage opportunity.
“I thought we were the better team in the first and earned some of those power-play chances,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t capitalize on them and they were the better team in the second period, no question about it. We got a little loose defensively … In the third period it turns into run-and-gun and that’s not really going to turn out well for us against a team like that.”
The Ducks, who improved to 17-6-3 at home, led 1-0 after the first period and 2-1 after two. Silfverberg, defenseman Korbinian Holzer and Cam Fowler put pucks behind goalie Calvin Pickard in the third.
“Like every other game, we don’t really score much and (Anaheim) is one of the best defensive teams. Just par for the course,” Avs center Nathan MacKinnon said. “It’s obviously tough to find positives.”
Anaheim took a 2-0 lead on Rickard Rakell’s back-door, tap-in goal 2:54 into the second period. Avs defensemen Francois Beauchemin and Tyson Barrie were both in front of the opposite post, leaving Rakell alone to punch in Corey Perry’s pass.
Colorado, however, answered at 5:13 when Mikko Rantanen scored on a breakaway. But the Avs couldn’t get anything else behind Ducks goalie John Gibson.
Ducks 5, Avalanche 1
First period — 1, Anaheim, Silfverberg 14 (Vermette, Ritchie), 10:58 (pp). Penalties — Kesler, ANA, (delay of game), 5:02; Duchene, COL, (high sticking), 8:59; Vatanen, ANA, (hooking), 13:10; Cogliano, ANA, (tripping), 15:38.
Second period — 2, Anaheim, Rakell 21 (Getzlaf, Perry), 2:54. 3, Colorado, Rantanen 8 (Grigorenko), 5:13. Penalties — Rakell, ANA, (interference), 17:35.
Third period — 4, Anaheim, Silfverberg 15 (Cogliano), 2:51. 5, Anaheim, Holzer 1 (Cramarossa, Silfverberg), 12:13. 6, Anaheim, Fowler 11 (Kesler, Ritchie), 17:35. Penalties — None.
Shots on goal — Colorado 14-6-9—29. Anaheim 8-14-9—31. Power-play opportunities — Colorado 0 of 4; Anaheim 1 of 1. Goalies — Colorado, Pickard 7-14-1 (31 shots-26 saves). Anaheim, Gibson 20-11-8 (29-28).
Attendance — 15,963 (17,174). T — 2:31.
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