Ducks Crash Back to Reality

DENVER â€”  The Mighty Ducks were already a mile high before they reached this place, which only made for a harder landing.

They would fight uphill against the Colorado Avalanche virtually all night Tuesday before finally falling, 4-3, but the manner in which their six-game winning streak ended at Pepsi Center proved most unsettling in the dressing room.

The Ducks ran into an Avalanche team that worked harder and proved a little tougher in fighting off several comebacks to overtake Calgary for first place in the Northwest Division. The Ducks and the Flames are tied for fifth in the Western Conference with 86 points.

Could it be that things were going too well?

“Maybe we needed a reality check,� defenseman Sean O’Donnell said, “a little cold water in the face.�

Andrew Brunette scored two third-period goals to break ties in each case, including the game-winner on an apparent deflection at 13:57 of the third period as he and Duck center Todd Marchant battled right in front of goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

“I was just going to the net and [Brett Clark] shot it at me and it just kind of went in,� Brunette said. “I don’t know if I bumped Giguere. I was just going to the net, and he might have been outside the crease.

“I don’t know and I don’t care.�

Giguere, who lost his stick as Brunette and Marchant tangled, thought the forward did more than screen him but blamed the loss on the team’s effort.

“I thought it was goalie interference there,� said Giguere, who fell to 4-9-2 lifetime against Colorado. “But that Sakic line outworked us all game. I thought their whole team actually outworked us all game. We didn’t deserve to win tonight.�

Brunette also assisted on Clark’s second-period goal, and Avalanche captain Joe Sakic had three assists. O’Donnell got his first goal as a Duck, and Teemu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf scored in the third period to erase one-goal deficits.

But although comebacks were the norm in their winning streak, this one didn’t provide the right ending.

“There’s no quit,� Duck Coach Randy Carlyle said, “but I didn’t think that we played structurally sound enough. We shouldn’t be giving up four goals in the hockey game.

“It’s not like we didn’t try. We tried and tried, and they kept coming back.�

The Ducks got a brief scare when their best player, captain Scott Niedermayer, appeared to have hurt his left leg as he was checked into the door of their bench while it was open.

Niedermayer came off the ice and walked up the tunnel but returned a short time later and figured in on Selanne’s team-leading 34th goal when he forced a turnover in the Avalanche zone.

The assist gave him 57 points to set a team record previously held by Fredrik Olausson, who had 56 in 1998-99.

“Those things just happen,� said Niedermayer, who tied his career-high point total.

After Brunette’s second goal, the Ducks (37-22-12) managed to gain a late power play on Pierre Turgeon’s hooking penalty. But they came up empty as they had with the man advantage all night, going scoreless in five chances after a nine-for-15 stretch over the last three games.

Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj also stymied them late after they pulled Giguere for an extra attacker with a minute remaining. Budaj made 28 saves as Colorado avenged a 5-4 overtime loss last week in Anaheim.