Avalanche rally to defeat Ducks after 16-day break

DENVER --Logan O'Connor scored to break a tie with 1:11 left in the third period for the Colorado Avalanche, who rallied for a 4-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks at Ball Arena on Sunday.

Nathan MacKinnon sent a pass around Ducks defenseman Jamie Drysdale to O'Connor, who beat goalie John Gibson short side to give the Avalanche a 3-2 lead. Mikko Rantanen scored into an empty net with 32 seconds remaining for the 4-2 final.
"Once I saw [Drysdale] slide, [with] Nate being on his forehand, I saw he could slide it across," O'Connor said. "He made a real good play, got some good air on it. Great pass, great awareness. Any time in that situation if you can avoid going to overtime, that's huge trying to get one at the end. I was fortunate enough to get that one in."

Rantanen had a goal and two assists, MacKinnon had three assists, and Darcy Kuemper made 29 saves for Colorado (18-8-2), which hadn't played since a 5-2 loss to the Nashville Predators on Dec. 16. The Avalanche have won nine straight at home.
"I don't think anyone felt amazing tonight," MacKinnon said. "Physicality, lungs, legs, whatever; it was a grind for sure, but we got it done. It's always nice to get into a rhythm here, so hopefully, we can finish with no more delays. Coming back from 2-0 is awesome. There was no panic on the bench, guys stayed calm."
Cam Fowler and Sam Carrick scored, Kevin Shattenkirk had two assists, and Gibson made 32 saves for Anaheim (17-11-7), which is 0-2-2 in its past four games.
The Ducks were without center Ryan Getzlaf, who was placed in NHL COVID-19 protocol before the game. Forward Max Comtois was activated from protocol after missing two games.
"It's one of those nights," Anaheim coach Dallas Eakins said. "We can sit and talk about how good we played for 58 minutes, but we lost the game. It doesn't feel very good."
Eakins said a poor line change, along with other mistakes, enabled Colorado to score the winning goal.
"There were three breakdowns," he said. "We've got a 50-50 puck that's just inside the red line that we didn't get much of, and we had two guys changing with the puck right in front of our bench, [or] at least trying to change. Fatigue makes cowards of us all and when your heart rates are up, your brains turn off, and our brains certainly turned off there."
The Ducks took a 1-0 lead on Carrick's goal at 1:55 of the first period. Troy Terry gave the puck to Shattenkirk for a shot, and Carrick converted the rebound.

Fowler made it 2-0 at 3:22 of the second period, driving to the net after passing to Comtois. The Ducks forward took a shot from above the left face-off circle off the rush, and Fowler redirected it in on a power play. Fowler missed a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday because of an upper-body injury.
"Combination of being able to be [a] full participant in yesterday's practice and a lot of good treatment," Fowler said of being able to play Sunday. "Once I got into warmups, I knew I was fine and then adrenaline kicks in.
"I don't think the guys felt like they brought everything they could in the Vegas game, and tonight we wanted to come in with a strong mindset. The compete level was there today, but that's only going to take you so far. We've got to find ways to win these hockey games and earn a better fate. We expect better than just hanging around and being close."
The Avalanche cut it to 2-1 at 11:47 when Devon Toews scored on the power play with a blocker-side shot from the top of the slot off a Rantanen drop pass.
Gabriel Landeskog tied it 2-2 at 3:19 of the third period, putting in the rebound of MacKinnon's shot on a power play. Landeskog returned after missing three games with a lower-body injury, and the forward extended his personal point streak to 11 games (14 points; four goals, 10 assists).
"Loved the stick-to-itiveness of our group," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "We just kept at it and kept at it and dug our way out of a hole and eventually got the win."
NOTES: Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram had two shots on goal in 18:35 of ice time after missing eight games with a head injury. … MacKinnon has 17 points (two goals, 15 assists) in a 10-game point streak. … Rantanen has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in a seven-game streak. … Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri extended his personal point streak to eight games (14 points; four goals, 10 assists). … Kuemper is 5-0-0 with a 2.42 goals-against average and .925 save percentage in his past five starts.