It's the same faces in a new place tonight for the Ducks and Avalanche, as Anaheim hits the road to open a two-game trip with a rematch against Colorado at Ball Arena.
PUCK DROP: 6 P.M. PT | TV: BALLY SPORTS SOCAL | DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER
The Ducks will visit the Mile High City hoping to build on a 4-3 shootout victory Saturday over these same Avs. Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn led the way for Anaheim that night, each scoring in the second period to help Anaheim erase a two-goal deficit and snap an eight-game losing skid.
"I feel like we've played some good hockey recently," Killorn said. "It seems like we make these mistakes where we give up breakaways and 2-on-1s early in games and it seems like we're fighting to get back into it. Great resiliency by the group. I just think we want to tighten things up so we can play with some leads and not always be playing it like that."
"The work and execution on both sides of the puck was there for the majority of the game," added Adam Henrique. "You really have to manage the puck against them...We managed the puck and it allowed us to get on the forecheck and attack. That was key for us."
Carlsson capped the overtime dramatics with an outstanding shootout move, a backhand-to-forehand tuck around the outstretched leg of goaltender Ivan Prosvetov.
"I don't want to say [it was something] special," the ever-humble Carlsson said. "I kind of lost the puck there, so I was neervous for a tenth of a second and after that I knew I had him, so it was a good shot."
"He was awesome the whole game," head coach Greg Cronin said. "That was an unbelievable goal he scored, so we needed that obviously. It had been eight in a row losing games, and you could feel a little stress on the bench towards the end. I thought we really rebounded well in overtime, had some quality chances."
With the win, Anaheim improved to 10-14-0 and 4-0-0 in games decided beyond regulation.
"We competed hard and got into more of an attacking mentality," Cronin said. "That's the style of hockey we were playing with earlier. We need to build on that."
Anaheim will meet Colorado tonight for the third time in the last month, with each side looking to claim the season series after a win on home ice.
"You're more familiar with their tendencies and you can coach specifically to those things," Cronin said. "When you're playing a different opponent every game, you've got to focus more on what you do as a group. In this one, you still have that as your core platform, but you can make some adjustments that will reflect in that game."
Colorado returns to home ice tonight after a winless three-game road trip themselves, falling to Arizona, Anaheim and Los Angeles in a four-day stretch.
"I thought it was a highly competitive hockey game," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said after Saturday's game at Honda Center. "It felt like they owned portions of the game, and then I felt like we owned some portions of the game myself. I thought it was very evenly played, and I'm guessing the shots and scoring chances will reflect that. We were a little opportunistic in the first, I thought they were really competitive on pucks down low in our zone in the first period, and owned most of the possession time, but we did some nice things on the breakouts to create some rush opportunities and D were highly involved."
The Avs would claim a 1-0 lead earlier in the first period the following night against the Kings, but four unanswered goals for LA would prove insurmountable in the second half of a back-to-back.
“We played to our game plan for the most part until 10 minutes left in the game,” Colorado forward Logan O'Connor told NHL.com's Dan Greenspan. “Our details got lax at the end there, and good teams are gonna find a way to capitalize, and that’s what they did to us.”
Colorado (15-7-2, 32 points) leads the Central Division, with a one-point edge on Dallas.
