Fresh off perhaps the most exhilarating win in a season of thrillers, the Ducks will look to recapture the magic of Saturday’s 4-3 shootout victory against the Colorado Avalanche at home in a rematch in the Mile High City on Tuesday night.
“It’s a little harder to play them away,” said rookie Leo Carlsson, who had a goal, an assist and the shootout winner to snap the Ducks’ eight-game losing streak. “Colorado has so many good players, (Cale) Makar and (Nathan) MacKinnon and those guys, they’re hard to play against. They’re in the top five for sure.”
The Avalanche beat the Ducks, 8-2, in Colorado on Nov. 15, though it was a game that got away from the visitors late after having rallied to win in Nashville a night earlier. The Avs felt some fatigue and absorbed a scheduled loss of their own on Sunday, when they fell to the Kings, 4-1, in a game that was tied for the better part of 53 minutes.
Colorado played that game without its leading scorer and perhaps the best defenseman on the planet, Makar, who sustained a lower-body injury in the third period Saturday. If the Avs are without Makar again, they’ll still have MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, who have posted matching 31-point seasons thus far. Makar’s lack of availability didn’t stop Colorado’s defense corps, whom Ducks coach Greg Cronin said were aggressive up the sidewalls, from scoring all four of their goals against the Ducks and Kings over the weekend.
Colorado also scored Sunday’s first goal, as they did against the Ducks on Saturday before going on to build a 3-1 lead. That advantage evaporated in the Ducks’ seventh victory this season after being tied or behind at the second intermission and their fourth when trailing.
Even so, the Ducks have scored first in just six games, winning five, and failed to score first 16 times, also winning five of those matches in a decidedly lower-percentage proposition.
Getting on the board might be that much tougher Tuesday and also in Chicago on Thursday, as the Ducks’ most productive pivot, Mason McTavish, did not accompany them on their brief trip. He sustained an upper-body injury in the first period against Colorado and did not return.
With Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale’s offense unavailable for an extended period, McTavish’s absence will put even more pressure on the Ducks’ other scorers, including Carlsson and running mate Alex Killorn. Carlsson set up Killorn’s 200th career goal, and Killorn requited with a primary assist on a tally that was part of Carlsson’s brilliant evening.
“I have to pinch myself and realize he’s 18 years old. I was still in high school when I was 18, so for him to be doing what he’s been doing, it’s so impressive,” Killorn said. “I always say that the ceiling on this kid is so high, and I’ve played with a lot of hall-of-fame players, so, I’m very impressed.”
Killorn went to the Stanley Cup Final four times with the Tampa Bay Lightning, losing to Chicago in 2015, then winning back-to-back Cups in 2020 and 2021 before falling to Colorado in 2022. A broken finger limited his participation in training camp and the early part of the season, but his skating legs were in full force Sunday. Cronin said Killorn and Carlsson clicked effectively, and that Carlsson’s effortless, fluid stride got Killorn’s feet moving to keep pace.
“We’ve been waiting for that to show up,” said Cronin, who was an assistant for two Eastern Conference clubs. “I’ve seen him enough from the other bench and he’s usually visible. He was on a team full of stars with Stamkos and Kucherov and Point, so he doesn’t have that “A” star status, so to speak. But he plays such an impactful game because of his size, his reach, his (physicality), his netfront ability and his defensive reliability.”
DUCKS AT COLORADO
When: Tuesday, 6 p.m. PT
Where: Ball Arena, Denver
TV: Bally Sports SoCal
