Rapid Recap: Ducks 5, Avalanche 4 (OT)

The Colorado Avalanche fell 5-4 in overtime to the Anaheim Ducks at Ball Arena on Saturday after Ryan Getzlaf scored on the power play in overtime.
After falling behind 2-0 in the second period, the Avs scored four unanswered goals with two tallies from Mikko Rantanen and a goal each from Logan O'Connor and Brandon Saad, but Anaheim found the back of the net twice in the third to send the contest to overtime.
Samuel Girard and Nazem Kadri each had two assists in the outing, and goaltender Hunter Miska made 22 saves.
Rickard Rakell had a goal and two assists while Troy Terry found the back of the net twice for Anaheim. Kevin Shattenkirk tallied the game-tying goal for the Ducks on the power play with less than three minutes remaining in regulation.

Colorado is now 2-1-1 against Anaheim this year. The next matchup between the clubs will take place at Ball Arena on March 16.

THE GOALS

1st Period
5:10 ANA (0-1) - Sam Steel won a faceoff right to Rickard Rakell, who scored the first goal of the game with a quick shot in the slot.
2nd Period
4:26 ANA (0-2) - Troy Terry stickhandled the puck into the crease and tallied with a backhand shot.
12:06 COL (1-2) - Valeri Nichushkin found Logan O'Connor for a breakaway and O'Connor scored glove side.
17:36 COL (2-2) - PPG, Mikko Rantanen backhanded a puck that had bounced off the end board and banked it off of goalie Ryan Miller and into the Anaheim net. Samuel Girard assisted on the goal for his 100th NHL point.
3rd Period
6:03 COL (3-2) - Mikko Rantanen tallied his second of the game with his second shot attempt of the sequence after he collected his own rebound.
6:27 COL (4-2) - Brandon Saad scored five-hole off a centering feed from Andre Burakovsky.
13:03 ANA (4-3) - Troy Terry notched his second marker of the game with a shot fro=m the top of the left circle.
17:10 ANA (4-4) - PPG, Kevin Shattenkirk tied the game with a shot through traffice from the right circle on the power play.
Overtime
1:59 ANA (5-4) - PPG, Ryan Getzlaf scored the game-winner in overtime on the power play.
Final: Ducks - 5 | Avalanche - 4 (OT)

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 1 for 3
Anaheim:2 for 2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Hunter Miska made 22 saves in his fourth start of the season.
Anaheim: Ryan Miller stopped 29-of-33 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Samuel Girard assisted on Mikko Rantanen's power-play goal in the second period to record his 100th career point before he added point No. 101 in the third period with another helper on Rantanen's second tally. In 20 contests this year, the Roberval, Quebec, native has 17 points (four goals, 13 assists).
Girard is the 10th player from the 2016 draft class to reach the milestone and the third defenseman. Selected by the Nashville Predators with the 47th overall pick, he has collected 16 goals and 85 assists through 245 games in the league.

NOTEBOOK

Mikko Rantanen scored his team-leading fifth power-play goal of the season... Valeri Nichushkin had an assist in the contest and has two goals and two helpers in the past five outings... Logan O'Connor was skating in his 11th game of the campaign and scored for the third time... Pierre-Edouard Bellemare turned 26 on Saturday, the fourth year in a row that he has played a game on his birthday… The Avalanche concluded its fourth of eight back-to-backs on the season and is now 2-0-2 in the second contest when playing on consecutive days. Colorado is 3-1-0 in the first half of such sets… The Avalanche is now 2-1-1 against the Ducks this campaign. The clubs meet four more times this season with the next matchup occurring at Ball Arena on March 16.... Colorado is 7-1-2 in one-goal games this season
BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Swedes in Sick Sweaters

ROSTER REPORT

Goalie Hunter Miska made his fourth start of the year and forward Jayson Megna played his third game of the season on a trio with Brandon Saad and Joonas Donskoi. Colorado's top line consisted of Andre Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri and Mikko Rantanen while Gabriel Landeskog skated with Tyson Jost and Valeri Nichushkin. The threesome of Kiefer Sherwood, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Logan O'Connor remained the same. Prior to the game, Colorado recalled forwards Nick Henry and Travis Barron to its taxi squad.

INJURY UPDATE

J.T. Compher missed his first game of the season with an upper-body injury. Nathan MacKinnon remains out after taking a hit on Wednesday at the San Jose Sharks, and head coach Jared Bednar said on Friday that the forward will probably miss a few games. Veteran forward Matt Calvert and defensemen Bowen Byram and Cale Makar are all considered day-to-day with upper-body injuries. Dennis Gilbert has been out since suffering an upper-body injury on Feb. 16 and is also in COVID protocol. Pavel Francouz (lower body) and Erik Johnson (upper body) remain out long term.

UP NEXT

Colorado continues its nine-game homestay, the longest continuous homestand in its franchise history, with games against the Arizona Coyotes on Monday and Wednesday.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
95 Andre Burakovsky - 91 Nazem Kadri - 96 Mikko Rantanen
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
20 Brandon Saad - 12 Jayson Megna - 72 Joonas Donskoi
44 Kiefer Sherwood - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
2 Dan Renouf - 7 Devon Toews
49 Samuel Girard - 34 Jacob MacDonald
27 Ryan Graves - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
32 Hunter Miska
31 Philipp Grubauer