MacKinnon has 3 points, Avalanche hold off Ducks to end 3-game skid

DENVER -- Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists, and the Colorado Avalanche held on to win 3-2 against the Anaheim Ducks at Ball Arena on Tuesday.

Alexandar Georgiev made 31 saves, and Jonathan Drouin had two assists for the Avalanche (16-7-2), who had lost three straight (0-1-2).

“Every line was different tonight, right, with [Cale Makar, Valeri Nichushkin, and Andrew Cogliano] out of the lineup -- every single line,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “So, you don't really know what you're going to get. You're looking for the right amount of effort and commitment to play a solid defensive game and you want guys to chip in, and you're probably relying on your top guys to chip in more than the other guys at that point. So I mean, it's huge. You don't win without an effort like that from Nate.”

Sam Carrick and Leo Carlsson scored, and John Gibson made 27 saves for the Ducks (10-15-0), who have lost nine of 10, with the one win in that span being a 4-3 shootout victory against the Avalanche on Saturday.

“We keep doing this. We wait to get behind. I don't know what's going on psychologically, but it's too late,” Anaheim coach Greg Cronin said. “We keep doing it and everybody praises us for coming back, but to me it's just kind of silly hockey, right? Why isn't that there in the beginning of the game?

“You got a team that played four games in six nights, started out in Arizona and basically went from Orange County to L.A. to home, get in late, and we play them. We should have put fatigue on them earlier, and we didn't. Give them credit. They won puck battles, and they wanted it more, particularly in the second period. I thought, first period we had some quality chances and we didn't score, but I thought the second period they dominated the whole period.”

Kurtis MacDermid gave Colorado a 1-0 lead when he kicked a centering pass from MacKinnon off his own skate to his stick and beat Gibson’s glove with a wrist shot at 1:40 of the first period. The assist extended MacKinnon’s point streak to nine games (14 points; three goals, 11 assists).

“His first shift, five seconds after being on the ice, the impact he's made,” Avalanche forward Logan O'Connor said of MacDermid. “Absolutely awesome. The work ethic he puts in, the type of teammate he is, having him score those types of goals is especially huge for the team morale.”

MacKinnon one-timed a crossing pass from Drouin into the open net to make it 2-0 at 17:43 of the second period. Drouin sent a loose rebound from Josh Manson’s point shot across the top of the crease to set it up.

“Before the shot, I saw I was alone at the net, so I knew someone was going to come to me at some point because I was alone for a little too long,” Drouin said. “I saw Nate come off the bench and go right to that spot. So when it landed on my stick, I tried to get it over as quick as possible and he buried it.”

O’Connor scored to make it 3-0 when he located his own rebound in the blue paint behind Gibson and tucked it over the line at 6:21 of the third period.

MacKinnon’s second assist was his 500th in the NHL. He’s the first player from the 2013 NHL Draft, and the fourth in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history, to reach the milestone.

“It's pretty cool. I always like to take pride in seeing guys and play-making,” MacKinnon said. “Played a lot of games, got drafted a while ago now, so pretty cool I guess.”

Bednar said, “It’s big. I think you look at the draft and where he's drafted and people would probably expect that, so it doesn't get all the hoopla. But in a game like this, when there's new players coming every year and everyone has these expectations for him, I think whenever you can live up to expectations or exceed expectations, it's pretty phenomenal. And I think he's done that.”

Carrick scored short-handed at 10:43 to cut the lead to 3-1 after he sent the puck off Georgiev’s glove and into the net on a breakaway following Mikko Rantanen’s turnover in the neutral zone.

“I think it was probably a lucky break to to get that breakaway there and to get a goal,” Carrick said. “I think that's a huge morale boost, and all of a sudden it's a two-goal game. Everyone had some life and we were all feeling good, and there was that feeling that we can come back here, and just kind of ran out of time.”

Carlsson scored a power-play goal to make it 3-2 when he settled a pass from Troy Terry at the right circle and shot past a diving Georgiev at 14:11 of the third.

“Like every game we get down 1-0, 2-0, and then we start playing hockey,” Cronin said. “So, it's really frustrating because when we play hard like that, we're a fun team to watch and we're a tough team to beat, but when we pick and choose our way through a game, it's not going to translate well after 60 minutes.”

NOTES: MacKinnon (734 games played) became the fifth-fastest active player to reach 500 assists (Connor McDavid, 527 games; Sidney Crosby, 554; Nicklas Backstrom, 691; Evgeni Malkin, 694). … MacKinnon extended his home point streak to 11 games (21 points; six goals, 15 assists). … MacKinnon has 222 multipoint games, tying Peter Forsberg for fourth in Avalanche/Nordiques history. … Nichushkin (illness) was a late scratch. … Anaheim forward Max Jones and Colorado defenseman Bowen Byram each left in the second period with an upper-body injury.