Ducks’ 7-game winning streak ends in Colorado

DENVER — The Ducks finally ran out of momentum in the Rocky Mountains.

Gabriel Landeskog scored his first goal of the season, Nathan MacKinnon had three assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Ducks, 4-1, on Tuesday night, snapping the visitors’ seven-game winning streak.

Leo Carlsson scored his sixth goal in the past four games for the Ducks and recorded his 100th career point, making the 20-year-old the youngest player in Ducks history to reach that milestone. Troy Terry got his team-leading 15th assist of the season and Lukas Dostal made 32 saves in a matchup of the Western Conference’s points leaders.

MacKinnon (32 points) and Carlsson (26) are the top two scorers in the NHL.

Landeskog’s second-period goal, which gave Colorado a 2-1 lead, was his first in the regular season since March 5, 2022. The 32-year-old left wing had missed the entire 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons, as well as the 2024-25 regular season, after undergoing a series of knee surgeries. After the goal, the home crowd serenaded him with chants of “Landy.”

Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood stopped 35 shots for his NHL-leading 10th win of the season. It was the seventh time in 14 starts this season that Wedgewood has allowed one or fewer goals.

Artturi Lehkonen, Martin Necas and Parker Kelly (empty net) also scored for Colorado, with Lehkonen’s goal coming just 28 seconds into the first period.

The Ducks turned the puck over in their own zone in the opening minute, and the Avalanche worked it around. Cale Makar sent a pass to MacKinnon, who fed Lehkonen in the right circle for a one-timer that beat Dostal.

The Ducks tied it late in the first when Jacob Trouba curled a pass to Carlsson as he crashed the net, and Carlsson knocked it by Wedgewood at 18:16.

Both goaltenders came up big midway through the second period. Wedgewood stretched out to stop Terry’s backhander and a few minutes later Dostal made a glove save on Makar’s wrister from the slot.

Moments later, Landeskog broke through. Sam Malinski broke his stick on a shot from the point and it went to Valeri Nichushkin, who put a shot on Dostal. The rebound dropped in front of the crease and Landeskog poked it past Dostal at 11:37.

Landeskog had two goals waved off earlier in the season.

Necas gave Colorado a two-goal advantage on the power play when he was on the end of a double deflection at 7:02 of the third period.

Dostal came off for an extra skater with 3:27 left and Kelly sealed it with an empty-net goal at 17:39.

With the win, the Central Division-leading Avalanche improved to 6-0-1 in their past seven games and 16-1-2 in their past 19 meetings against the Ducks.

The one goal matched a season-low for the Ducks, who came into the game averaging an NHL-best 4.13 goals per game with four seven-goal games already this season.

Their winning streak was the longest active run in the league, and the Ducks had ridden a 9-1-1 surge to the top of the Pacific Division standings. The strong start gives the Ducks, who have not reached the postseason since the 2017-18 season, an opportunity to end that drought in Coach Joel Quenneville’s first season behind the bench.

UP NEXT

The Ducks play at Detroit on Thursday at 4 p.m. PT in the second game of a three-game road trip.