Rapid Recap: Ducks 5, Avalanche 2

The Colorado Avalanche lost its first home game of the season on Saturday, as the club fell 5-2 to the Anaheim Ducks at Pepsi Center.
Anaheim goaltender Ryan Miller stopped 35 of the 37 shots he faced, and both markers he allowed came on the power play. Ducks defenseman Hampus Lindholm assisted on the first three Anaheim goals.
Joonas Donskoi and Nathan MacKinnon each scored for the Avalanche, and goaltender Pavel Francouz made 22 saves.

Colorado continues its three-game homestand on Wednesday against the Florida Panthers.
Statistics
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Photo Gallery
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Notes & Quotes
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Highlights
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Video: Coach Bednar Postgame

THE GOALS

1st Period
0:50 ANA (0-1) - Rickard Rakell fed the puck to Adam Henrique in the slot, and Henrique scored to give Anaheim the early lead.
12:51 ANA (0-2) - Carter Rowney scored on a 2-on-1 with Derek Grant.
2nd Period
5:22 COL (1-2) - PPG, Joonas Donskoi threw the puck off Anaheim goalie Ryan Miller and it caromed into the net.
8:28 ANA (1-3) - PPG, Ryan Getzlaf scored his fourth goal of the year with a wrist shot at the right circle during a power play.
3rd Period
1:38 COL (2-3) - PPG, Nathan MacKinnon scored with backhand shot while on the power play to cut Colorado's deficit in half.
6:42 ANA (2-4) - Max Comtois knocked a loose puck into the Avalanche net to extend the Ducks' lead back to two.
17:47 ANA (2-5) - Jakob Silfverberg secured the win for Anaheim with an empty-net tally.
Final: Ducks - 5 | Avalanche - 2

3 STARS

Selected by Colorado Hockey Coach of the Game:Joel Manguso (Northern Colorado Youth Hockey)

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 2 for 6
Anaheim: 1 for 3

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Pavel Francouz made his third start of the year and stopped 22 of 26 shots faced
Anaheim: Ryan Miller faced 37 shots and allowed two power-play goals

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Cale Makar registered his ninth assist of the year, setting a new Avalanche record (since 1995-96) for the most helpers by a rookie defenseman in a single month.
His 10 points (one goal, nine assists) are the most ever by a Colorado first-year blueliner in October and are the second most by an Avs rookie rear guard in any month.
Makar leads all NHL rookies in assists (nine) and ranks tied for first with 10 points.

NOTEBOOK

Nathan MacKinnon extended his season-opening point streak to 11 games, the longest to begin a campaign in Avalanche history and the fifth-longest in franchise history. He is the only player in the league to register a point in each game he's played this season.… Colorado finished 2-for-6 on the power play, the second time this season it has tallied more than one goal with the man advantage (also: Oct. 3 vs. Calgary, 2-for-6). The Avs have notched a power-play marker in eight of their 11 games this year and are 10-for-44 (22.7 percent) with the man advantage... Colorado completed its second of 12 back-to-backs this season and is now 2-0-0 in the first game and 1-1-0 in the second half of these sets… The Avalanche is 4-1-0 on home ice this season. Dating back to the 2018-19 campaign, Colorado is 15-3-1 in its last 19 regular-season home contests... The Avs will play at Anaheim on Feb. 21 and will host the Ducks on March 4 to wrap up the three-game season series.

QUOTABLE

Gabriel Landeskog on the game: "Obviously they are a good team and getting off to the lead like they did, you know, it makes it that much easier to play the way that they want to do, but tonight I think it was more about us and what we didn't do rather than what they did. It's just one of those games where you get off to a sloppy start and are trying to find it offensively and trying to find it defensively and guys are just kind of on their own and not communicating and not working hard enough and that's going to happen. But I think for us here at home ice coming back after long road trips, you want to show up better than we did tonight and it's unfortunate. You know, it's not good enough for anybody tonight and we know that and it's a valuable lesson we have to learn from."

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Back at home.

ROSTER REPORT

Pavel Francouz started in net for his third game of the year… Mark Barberio and Vladislav Kamenev were the healthy scratches.

INJURY UPDATE

Mikko Rantanen is week-to-week with a lower-body injury and will be reevaluated on Tuesday or Wednesday.

UP NEXT

Colorado continues its three-game homestand on Wednesday when it hosts the Florida Panthers at Pepsi Center. It will be the second and final matchup between the clubs this season. The Avs won the first meeting, 5-4 in overtime at Florida on Oct. 18.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on the start of the game
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 37 J.T. Compher
95 Andre Burakovsky - 91 Nazem Kadri - 72 Joonas Donskoi
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 17 Tyson Jost - 22 Colin Wilson
83 Matt Nieto - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 11 Matt Calvert
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
28 Ian Cole - 8 Cale Makar
16 Nikita Zadorov - 27 Ryan Graves
Goaltenders
39 Pavel Francouz
31 Philipp Grubauer