Ducks surrender late lead in home finale loss to Avalanche

ANAHEIM — The Ducks were swept in their season series with the Colorado Avalanche, despite the Avs playing a B-team of sorts in the final meeting of the campaign.

Colorado, which was playing tail end of a back-to-back set, won 4-2 at Honda Center on Sunday night behind four unanswered goals in the second half of the third period.

Already resting bodies or cautiously treating injuries to both core and peripheral players – Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Devon Toews and a host of others that sat Saturday against the Kings were joined by Valeri Nichushkin on Sunday – the Avalanche’s roster had the feel of a split squad, albeit a highly competitive one. The Ducks have won two of their past six games and can no longer finish above a .500 points percentage.

It was their final home game, and on Fan Appreciation Night, they treated the crowd early but disappointed it late. They have just two road games remaining on their docket, a back-to-back swing that will take them to Minnesota on Tuesday and Winnipeg on Wednesday.

“That’s not a reflection of what a team needs to do to be a winning team or even have a conversation about the playoffs,” Coach Greg Cronin said. “We turned pucks over repeatedly. It’s extremely disappointing.”

Mason McTavish and Sam Colangelo lit the lamp for the Ducks. Defenseman Ian Moore made his NHL debut after playing most of this season at Harvard and signing his entry-level contract this weekend. He registered three shots on goal and displayed the poise of a veteran with the ebullience of a neophyte. Lukáš Dostál made 20 of 23 saves

Charlie Coyle scored the game-winning goal and assisted on a power-play marker by Jack Drury (who added an assist), as well as an empty-net score by Erik Johnson. Wyatt Aamodt, 27, notched his first career goal. Scott Wedgewood stopped 18 shots.

“With teams like that –– obviously, they had some really good guys out –– it’s more the culture they have there, everybody was just kind of like ‘next man up,’” McTavish said. “We knew it would be a tough game. Clearly, they still have a lot of skill.”

The Ducks failed to cash in on an early third-period power play and then had to kill a penalty of their own. They did so thanks to Dostál, who made two point-blank saves in quick succession on Drury as part of a masterful display.

Colorado broke up his potential shutout with 9:55 remaining in the match and then tied the game with a power-play goal 4:29 later, when Drury exacted his revenge. Coyle would complete the Colorado comeback with 2:09 to play before Johnson added an empty-netter in the dying embers.

“Everything went off of turnovers. And it wasn’t like they stripped us, we had full possession of pucks,” Cronin said.

Coyle gave Colorado numbers by joining a two-on-two rush, bursting down the right wing to receive the puck and snipe it past a sliding Dostál.

“We had the puck, we threw it down to the net, it ricocheted around and we lost the third guy [Coyle],” Cronin said.

Drury had knotted the score by tipping Sam Malinski’s shot through Dostál.

“We had full possession inside of their blue line, and we turned it over. We threw, I don’t know what it was, a little Wiffle ball into the middle of the ice,” Cronin said. “It came back down and we shot it off the glass into the middle of the rink.”

Aamodt’s goal came off a giveaway turned counterattack, with his centering pass banking off Ducks defenseman Pavel Mintyukov’s skate and in for Aamodt’s first NHL goal, which he said he actually thought would be credited to Parker Kelly.

“We had the puck at the blue line and decided not to put it in deep, and passed it to (them) and we had guys caught down low,” Cronin said.

The Ducks entered the game having converted just three times in their past 44 man-advantage opportunities – to make matters worse, they gave up two shorthanded goals in that stretch – but extended their lead to 2-0 just one second after a Colorado penalty expired in the second stanza.

Coyle had not even shut the penalty box door when Alex Killorn pushed a pass from below the goal line into the inner part of the right circle for a one-timer by Colangelo. Of his nine goals this season, eight have come since March 4, with Colangelo having spent the majority of his campaign in the minors.

The first period enjoyed a brisk pace with some superb goaltending for the Ducks and some desperate defending from the Avs, keeping the period scoreless until 68 seconds remained.

Then, the Ducks broke through after Troy Terry’s clearing attempt initially eluded McTavish, but Nikita Nesterenko applied pressure to keep the puck loose. McTavish recovered it and weaved from the right wing to just above the left faceoff dot, where he labeled a laser for the top, far-side corner.

McTavish’s 22 goals, 29 assists and 51 points are all career highs, all despite stumbling out of the starting blocks. McTavish has 33 points in 36 games since Jan. 15, which would be a 75-point pace if it were sustained across a full season.

Bright spots aside, it was a disheartening loss, despite the relative lack of significance for both sides, Cronin said.

“I don’t care what game it is during the season, you either play the right way or you play the wrong way. We just played the wrong way.”