HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

Coming off their bye week, the Colorado Avalanche came into tonight’s home contest against the Anaheim Ducks expecting some rust early on. Surprisingly, they found the opposite as they jumped out to a quick start, generating shots on three of their first four shifts and looking like a team already in rhythm.

That disappeared in the blink of an eye when a lazy Francois Beauchemin shot on goal was blocked and sparked a two-on-one the other way. Jakob Silfverberg, who blocked the initial shot, smoked Beauchemin and then blew the puck past goaltender Semyon Varlamov to give the Ducks a 1-0 lead just 3:52 into the game.

Colorado responded with an unassisted one-man show of their own when recently-named All-Star Nathan MacKinnon stripped the puck at center ice and emerged from a pack of three Ducks in tow as he separated in an awesome display of speed and got goaltender John Gibson swimming on his stomach when he backhanded the puck into the net to make it 1-1.

51 seconds later the Ducks regained the lead when the Avalanche were unable to clear the puck out of the defensive zone and Rickard Rakell used a great screen in front by Avalanche defenseman Patrick Wiercioch to beat Varlamov for a 2-1 lead. Anaheim went on to dominate the rest of the period but no more goals were scored by either side.

The second period was pretty even between the two teams except for a play in which the Ducks appeared to get away with a clear penalty against Blake Comeau, who was carrying the puck when the possible infraction occurred, and the Ducks turned their fortuitous possession into a goal after a wraparound attempt was stopped by Varlamov, who subsequently lost sight of the puck and Ryan Kesler tapped it in for the 3-1 lead.

Despite outshooting the Ducks 15-8 in the third period, the Avalanche were unable to close the gap on the scoreboard and an empty-net goal by Corey Perry brought the game its final score of 4-1.

THREE STARS

1. John Gibson
2. Rickard Rakell
3. Nathan MacKinnon

PLAY OF THE GAME

The MacKinnon goal was a breathtaking display of everything that makes MacKinnon potentially special. The speed, the skating, the hands, all working together in harmony to produce a highlight-worthy goal.

TURNING POINT

Kesler’s goal was the kind of goal that simply doesn’t seem to happen to other teams. It was a little bit of bad luck and a whole lot of confusion as everyone on the ice lost sight of the puck except Kesler, who tucked it home for the two-goal lead, putting Colorado too far behind to mount a realistic comeback.

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S NEXT

Colorado’s next action comes Saturday afternoon in a 1 p.m. tilt against the Nashville Predators at the Pepsi Center.