Good Ducks Return in Win

DENVER —  Trying to figure out the streaky Mighty Ducks this season can cause a headache.

One month, Anaheim looks like a team on the rise. The next month, the Ducks look like ... well, the Ducks.

So it really shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise Thursday night when they ended a seven-game winless streak with a come-from-behind 5-3 victory over Colorado in front of 18,007 at Pepsi Center.

Peter Sykora and Jason Krog each scored two goals and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere returned to the lineup after sitting out three games because of a stiff neck and finished with 36 saves for the Ducks, who won for the first time since they defeated Phoenix, 4-0, on Dec. 22.

“We’re in position now that we know that we have to win hockey games,” said Sykora, who scored the game-winning goal with 1:18 remaining in the third period. “We hadn’t won in a while and even though we were down, I felt that we were playing pretty good hockey. We just weren’t getting our bounces.”

Anaheim, 3-0 against the Avalanche this season, not only had to rally from a two-goal deficit on the road but do it in the second of back-to-back games. The Ducks lost, 1-0, to Edmonton on Wednesday at the Arrowhead Pond.

Thanks to a high-sticking penalty on the Ducks’ Vitaly Vishnevski 1:51 into the game, the Avalanche scored first on a power-play goal from Joe Sakic. Giguere never had a chance against Sakic, who took advantage of the large gaps left in the Ducks’ defense to score easily from the left circle at 2:54.

Colorado put on a passing clinic to take a two-goal lead later in the first. With Anaheim again scrambling on defense, defenseman Rob Blake gathered in a pass from Peter Forsberg and, from the right point, fired a perfect pass to a wide-open Milan Hejduk, who scored uncontested from outside the left post at 15:18.

But just when it was starting to look like an Avalanche rout, the Ducks began a rally in the final minute of the opening period. Krog scored their first goal when he picked up a loose puck near the left circle and beat Colorado goaltender Patrick Roy with a backhand shot with 11 seconds remaining in the period.

“We were finally able to do some things when we were down, 2-0, and suddenly we get back in it,” Anaheim Coach Mike Babcock said.

The Ducks continued to play well in the second period and were able to tie the score at 2-2. From just inside the blue line, Krog fired a shot that deflected off Blake near the slot and into the net at 6:44.

Colorado bounced back to take a 3-2 lead when, 10 seconds into a five-on-three power play, Hejduk scored again from the left side at 17:19.

But the Ducks picked up their own power-play goal when Sykora scored with 18.5 seconds remaining in the period.

With the score tied at 3-3 at the start of the third, the Ducks gave Colorado two power-play opportunities, but the Avalanche came up empty against Giguere, who seemed to get better throughout the game.

The Ducks finally caught the break they were looking for with less than three minutes remaining when Blake took an ill-advised penalty with a hip-check on Matt Cullen.

That set the stage for Sykora’s game-winning goal.

After receiving a textbook set-up pass from Adam Oates, Sykora scored his 15th goal of the season with a blast from the top of the left circle to put Anaheim ahead, 4-3.

“I was just trying to get open for [Oates],” Sykora said. “When I got it I tried to hit it as hard as I could and it went in for me.”

Anaheim defenseman Keith Carney added an empty-net goal with 30 seconds remaining to account for the final margin.