Ducks rally, defeat Avalanche on Perry's late goal

DENVER -- Corey Perry scored the tiebreaking goal for the Anaheim Ducks on the power play with 57 seconds left in the third period of a 5-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Friday.

Perry scored his second goal of the game after Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen was called for high-sticking Max Jones with 2:21 left. Ryan Getzlaf was in the left face-off circle when he passed through the slot to Nick Ritchie, whose shot deflected off the far post for Perry to tap it in.
"It was just lying there for me," said Perry, who had one goal in his previous 12 games. "It's definitely nice to contribute and be a part of it. Hopefully, you score some goals at crucial times, and we came through tonight."
WATCH: [All Ducks vs. Avalanche highlights]
Hampus Lindholm scored an empty-net goal with 23 seconds remaining for the 5-3 final.
Getzlaf had a goal and two assists, Daniel Sprong had a goal and an assist, and John Gibson made 41 saves for Anaheim (29-35-9), which is 5-3-0 in its past eight games and trails the Arizona Coyotes by 10 points for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. The Ducks were coming off a 6-1 loss at the Coyotes on Thursday.
"We are where we are in the standings," Getzlaf said. "That was our fate that we built. It was our opportunity to play the way we want to and understand what it takes to play in this league night after night."
Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Sven Andrighetto scored, and Semyon Varlamov made 32 saves for the Avalanche (30-29-12), who are 2-5-0 in their past seven games and trail the Coyotes by five points.
"Yeah, there's still a possibility (of making the playoffs)," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "As long as there are games left (11), we still got a chance. Until we're mathematically eliminated, we have a chance."

The Avalanche took a 1-0 lead on MacKinnon's goal at 6:54 of the first period. J.T. Compher was in the right circle when he passed across to MacKinnon for a one-timer.
Rantanen made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 18:10. Tyson Barrie sent a stretch pass to Rantanen, who scored with a backhand after skating from the left circle into the slot.
"We build the lead and it looked like we got comfortable with it and stopped working," Bednar said. "I didn't think our work ethic was exceptional in the first period either, to be honest with you."
The Ducks scored three straight goals in the second period to take the lead.
Perry made it 2-1 at 6:08. Cam Fowler's shot from the left point deflected to Perry, who scored from the right side of the net.

Getzlaf tied it 2-2 at 7:23. Fowler gained possession after Rantanen hit the post and fed Sprong, who passed across to Getzlaf in the right circle on the rush.
Sprong skated to the net and scored five-hole on the rebound of a Jaycob Megna shot at 13:40 to give the Ducks a 3-2 lead.
"We came out and competed," Getzlaf said. "I felt we did a lot better job being hard on pucks and making the little plays, making them turn all night. It paid off when we took pucks to the net. The first period, it wasn't like we had a really horrible period. We had a couple breakdowns that they capitalized on."
Andrighetto tied it 3-3 at 8:42 of the third period. He was in the slot when he put in a pass from Ian Cole.
"We have to win hockey games," Cole said. "We can't keep letting games slip away. Not only do you have to beat the teams that we should beat, which I guess at this point is up in the air, but we need to win games. That's really all there is to it."

They said it

"The nice thing we've been doing, we've put the season behind us from what we did when (former coach) Randy [Carlyle] was here. Once Randy left, not that I'm blaming him, I'm saying that was our time when we accepted where we were at and understood that we're trying to build something for next season and build something going forward. We changed a little bit the way we played and are trying to get everybody to buy into that system. We've done a good job of that." -- Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf
"We didn't play an inspired game like we really needed it, like it was mandatory that we won. The urgency, for me, wasn't there. If it was, we would have checked harder than what we did." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

Sprong has five points (four goals, one assist) in the past five games. … Getzlaf has five points (two goals, three assists) in the past four games. … MacKinnon has seven points (three goals, four assists) in the past five games.

What's next

Ducks:Host the Florida Panthers on Sunday (9 p.m. ET; FS-W, FS-F, NHL.TV)
Avalanche: Host the New Jersey Devils on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; SN1, ALT, MSG+, NHL.TV)