Kadri extends point streak, Avalanche top Ducks for sixth win in row

DENVER --Nazem Kadri had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 10 games, and the Colorado Avalanche won their sixth in a row with a 5-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Kadri has scored 21 points (six goals, 15 assists) during the streak.
"'Naz' is producing at a crazy level right now and feeling really good, and he looks great out there," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "Everybody realizes that we're missing one of the game's best players (Nathan MacKinnon missed his sixth straight game with a lower-body injury), and everybody else is stepping up."
Cale Makar scored for the fourth straight game for the Avalanche (10-5-1), who have outscored their opponents 36-15 during their winning streak.

Jonas Johansson allowed one goal on 20 shots for Colorado in relief of Darcy Kuemper (five saves), who left the game briefly in the first and then for the entire second and third period because of skate problems.
"I said on the bench, 'Again?'" Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "You rarely even see it happen even once. I just felt like it's [Johansson's] game now and let's find a solution to the skate problem. The holder is what's giving him trouble. It's breaking, the trigger's not holding the blade in, it's just falling out, so the solution is he's going to change holders and put them on the skate he has."
Bednar won his 194th game to pass Bob Hartley for the most in Avalanche history. Michel Bergeron has the most in Colorado/Quebec Nordiques history with 265.
"It's an honor to be coaching this team," Bednar said. "I'm grateful, I'm thankful to be here. For me it's satisfying, but it's not the reason I came, to move up a list. We're all chipping in and trying to accomplish the ultimate goal, and that's to win the Stanley Cup."
Sonny Milano scored twice, and John Gibson made 31 saves for the Ducks (10-7-3), who have lost three straight after winning their previous eight.
Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said he wasn't happy with his team's undisciplined play.
"Colorado did a good job of beating us at our own game," he said. "It's not a good game plan for 14 minutes to play with one less guy on the ice (6-for-7 on penalty kill). It disrupts our flow, we have our best players on the bench, and it taxes our penalty killers.
"The only part of the game that I thought there was any flow for us was about six or seven minutes in the third (period) when we were able to turn over our lines. We'll have to reassess that. Over the season we've done a (heck) of a job of staying out of the box and being disciplined, and we lost it tonight."
Milano gave Anaheim a 1-0 lead at 4:58 of the first period with a power-play goal.
Jamie Drysdale took the initial shot from the point, and as Kuemper tried to move off the post and into position to make the save, he lost the blade of right skate, causing him to lose his balance. Rickard Rakell then flipped the puck back on net, and with Kuemper unable to regain his balance and control the puck, Milano poked the rebound in off the back of his pad.

Following the goal, Johansson came into the game for 5:11 while Kuemper had his skate worked on.
"I'm just trying to focus when I'm out there," Johansson said. "If it's for two minutes or the rest of the game, it doesn't really matter."
Makar tied it 1-1 with 54 seconds remaining in the first from along the right boards. He has eight points (six goals, two assists) in his past four games.
"He's a special player and he's hitting his stride," Bednar said. "He's playing well. There's an element to it where he's shooting the puck more, and there's an element where he's just recognizing what teams are giving him. He's an elite player. Especially in that position in the offensive zone, he's as good as anybody on any other team."
Alex Newhook gave Colorado a 2-1 lead at 2:49 of the second period on a redirection, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel made it 3-1 at 10:25 with a shot from the slot after he whiffed on his initial attempt.
Kadri extended the lead to 4-1 at 57 seconds of the third period with a deflection of Mikko Rantanen's pass during a 5-on-3 power play.
Valeri Nichushkin made it 5-1 at 15:22, scoring from the left circle after Andre Burakovsky lost the puck trying to split the defense.
Milano scored his second power-play goal with a redirection at 16:07 for the 5-2 final.
NOTES:Ducks forward Adam Henrique missed his first game of the season after he sustained an upper-body injury in a 3-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Monday. … Anaheim forward Trevor Zegras had the secondary assist on Milano's second goal and has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past five games. … Rantanen has six points (two goals, four assists) in a four-game point streak. … Bednar is 194-154-40 for the Avalanche. Hartley was 193-108-10 with 48 ties, and Bergeron was 265-283 with 86 ties.