*Photo from The Rink Live*
The young Ducks are beginning to fly. Cam Fowler had two assists, Frank Vatrano scored a hat trick, and the Anaheim Ducks defeated the Colorado Avalanche with a 5-3 victory on Thursday night in Denver.
With the win, the Ducks have now won two in a row, 3 of their last 4, and end their 6 game road trip with a 3-2-1 record, improving to 15-29-5 on the season. Fowler and Vatrano were the only multi point scorers for the Ducks, who got a surprising win against the defending champions.
Ducks head coach Dallas Eakins said that "This was a huge game for us. I'm not so sure about them, but we talked before the game about we don't have to beat these guys four times in two weeks. We just have to beat them tonight, and that was going to be our measuring stick."
Kicking off the scoring was Colorado's Mikko Rantanen, who gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead 3:56 into the game, scoring his 32nd goal of the season with Devon Toews and Cale Makar assisting. Fowler then assisted on Vatrano's game tying goal at the 9:46 mark of the first, making it 1-1 on his 9th goal of the season.
Sam Girard gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead just 1:13 into the second period, his 4th goal of the season. The Avalanche lead became 3-1 when Rantanen scored his second goal of the game, this one coming on the power play. With 1:23 left in the period, Vatrano scored his second goal, making it a 3-2 game with one period to go.
At the 9:42 mark of the 3rd period, Adam Henrique tied the game for the Ducks, making it 3-3 with Simon Benoit and Troy Terry assisting. Just 24 seconds later, Mason McTavish scored to put the Ducks in front 4-3. Vatrano then sealed the win with an empty net goal to complete the hat trick, assisted by Fowler.
Eakins said of the win that "We wanted to be above .500 on this road trip. We were able to accomplish that. But I think the biggest thing is our team beat the Stanley Cup champions, and we had to do it with a whole lot of sandpaper and hard work. And our guys should be proud of that."
Getting the start in goal for the Ducks was John Gibson, who got the win to improve to 9-20-4 so far this season. Gibson stopped 41 saves on 44 shots from the Colorado offense, recording a .932 save percentage.
Starting opposite Gibson was Colorado's Pavel Francouz, who got saddled with the loss. Francouz turned aside 27 out of the 31 shots on goal the Ducks sent at him, which was good for a .871 save percentage. Francouz's record drops to 7-7-0 on the season.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said that "Let's call it what it is; the intensity that they came out with in the start of the third period and what we had was not comparable. If you look back on it, it doesn't surprise you that you let the game slip away, and we're too deep in the season now for that to happen."
Both teams get back in action with Saturday home contests. Gibson is expected to start for the Ducks against the Arizona Coyotes, while Alexandar Georgiev will likely start for the Avalanche against the St. Louis Blues.
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