Colorado led 2-0 at the first intermission after Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen scored in the opening frame, but the Ducks staged their own comeback in the second period by scoring twice in a span of 1:15 in the middle of the stanza and then took their first lead of the evening at 13:40.
"I just thought we were checking with our eyes. We got to check with our legs," said head coach Jared Bednar of the second period. "We're supposed to be the rested team, didn't win enough races, check the puck back enough. We build a lead and it looked like we got comfortable with it and we stopped working."
Said defenseman Nikita Zadorov: "It's hard to win when you don't play hard for 60 minutes. It's been hurting us all year. We had a pretty good first period, pretty good third period. We lost the [second] period, give up three goals, that's unacceptable."
The Avalanche wraps up the season series against the Ducks with a 1-2-0 record and now looks to end this four-game homestand on a high note on Sunday against the New Jersey Devils.
With 11 games remaining in the regular season and the Avalanche battling several other teams for a postseason spot in the Western Conference, Colorado needs to keep its determination for the entire game in order to get wins at this point of the campaign.
That's easier said than done.
"Being consistent is a skill as a player," Bednar said. "We have good players. We have really good players. But being able to do it every night is a skill. We got to work on it. We got to mature to the point where we're good every night, not just every once and awhile."
MIKKO POWER UP:Mikko Rantanen scored his 31st goal of the season late in the first period after his backhand shot from the slot beat goalie John Gibson during a man advantage.
The marker was Rantanen's 16th on the power play this year, which is tied for the third most in the NHL and the most by an Avs player since Joe Sakic also tallied 16 in 2006-07. Rantanen is tied with Sakic (2006-07) and Milan Hejduk (2003-04) for the fifth-most man-advantage goals in a season in Avs history (since 1995-96) and is tied for 12th overall in the franchise annals.
Colorado has scored a goal with the extra man in six of its past eight games (6-for-20, 30 percent) and ranks eighth in the NHL on the power play in 2018-19 with a 22.5-percent success rate.
NATE CLOSE TO NINETY:Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and assist and is now just one point away from reaching the 90-point plateau for the second consecutive season.
MacKinnon, who had 97 points in 2017-18, is looking to join Peter Forsberg as the only Avalanche players to post back-to-back seasons of 90 or more points (since 1995-96). Forsberg accomplished the feat in 1997-98 and 1998-99 with 91 and 97-point campaigns, respectively.
Friday marked MacKinnon's 26th multi-point performance of the year and his second in three games--he had a goal and two assists in Colorado's victory last Saturday against Buffalo.
With 36 goals and 53 assists this season, MacKinnon's 89 points presently ranks tied for sixth in the league.
MILITARY NIGHT: The Avalanche honored past and present service members at the game as the organization hosted its annual Military Appreciation Night.
Among the celebrations included Lieutenant Colonel James Harvey, a Tuskegee Airmen from World War II and a Korean War veteran, dropping the puck in a ceremonial faceoff pregame and an American flag being lowered from the Pepsi Center rafters by two Army rappel masters during the national anthem.
For the Avs, the loss on Military Appreciation Night was only their second in eight seasons, dropping their record to 6-2-0 in those contests.
