Recap: Vatrano's Hat Trick Powers Ducks to Comeback Win in Colorado

The Ducks fought back from a third-goal deficit to earn a comeback victory and snap the defending champs' six game-winning streak tonight in Denver, downing the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 at Ball Arena.
DUCKS STREAM | NHL GAMECENTER

With the win Anaheim capped a six-game road trip at 3-2-1 and improved to 15-29-5 on the season.
Frank Vatrano scored his third career hat trick to power the Ducks offense, answering Avalanche goals in the first and second period to help keep the Ducks in the game early. Adam Henrique and Mason McTavish also scored. Cam Fowler, Simon Benoit, Troy Terry, Dmitry Kulikov and Jakob Silfverberg added assists.
John Gibson earned his ninth win of the season with 40 saves, including 17 stops in a first period largely controlled by Colorado.

Mikko Rantanen scored twice for the Avalanche, taking sole possession of third among league leaders in goals this season (34) and moving within two of his own career-best (36). Samuel Girard also scored. Pavel Francouz made 27 saves.
Colorado went ahead first just four minutes in when a point shot redirected off one of many bodies collected in front of Gibson and right to Rantanen on the backdoor, where he tapped into an empty net before the Ducks could find the puck.
The Avalanche's lone star player to appear in all 47 games this season, Rantanen has put the club's offense on his back at times, pacing all Colorado skaters in points (34-26=60) and goals. He trails only Connor McDavid and David Pastrnak in total goals this season, and leads the league in even-strength goals (27).
Rantanen's opening goal was also his eighth of the season, tied for second-most in the NHL.
With the secondary assist, defenseman Cale Makar extended his scoring streak to seven games (4-6=10). The reigning Norris Trophy winner as the league's top blueliner, Makar is fifth in the league in scoring (13-31=44) and tied-for-third in goals among defenseman.
Colorado nearly added to the advantage minutes later as Nathan MacKinnon snuck behind the Anaheim defense for a partial breakaway against Gibson, but the Ducks netminder answered with a sliding blocker save to keep it a one-goal game.

The Ducks would make good on Gibson's timely stop shortly thereafter, pulling even on a relentless individual effort by Vatrano. After the Avs dumped the puck out of their defensive zone, Vatrano swung through neutral ice, taking a pass from Fowler before turning and heading north. The first-year Anaheim winger had his initial bid denied from just inside the blue line as Francouz gloved it but could not squeeze the rebound, which Vatrano got to first and lifted over the Czech native's glove to tie the game.

With two assists on the night, Fowler has seven points in his last four games (3-4=7). Now in his 13th season in Anaheim, Fowler is eight points shy of becoming the sixth player, and first defenseman, to record 400 points as a Duck.
Vatrano has five goals in his last five games (5-1=6) and has scored in back-to-back games for the first time as a Duck. He's now fourth among team leaders in goals (11) and has scored 10 of those 11 goals this season on the road.
The Avs reclaimed the lead 73 seconds into the second period. MacKinnon danced his way down the right wing wall, evading the check of Ryan Strome before delivering a backdoor pass right on Girard's tape for the tap-in goal.
MacKinnon has points in nine of his last ten games, including six-game multi-point games. The 27-year-old recorded his 700th career point in Colorado's win over Washington Tuesday, sixth-most in Avalanche/Nordiques history.
The assist also clinched MacKinnon's sixth straight 40-assist season.
Colorado then doubled the lead on a power-play goal, a one-timer by Rantanen from the right faceoff circle. After Gibson was called for a penalty when pushing off the post caused the net to dislodge, an act the referees ruled to be intentional, the Avs worked the puck around the perimeter of the zone before Girard put one right in Rantanen's wheel house for the slap shot past a sliding Gibson.
Rantanen's two goals on the night marked his seventh multi-goal effort of the season, also third among league leaders.
The Ducks were seemingly unphased by the questionable call though, getting right back to work with maybe their two best shifts of the game, spent cycling pucks and retrieving rebounds deep in the offensive zone. Vatrano was eventually the beneficiary of the hard work, digging away for a loose puck at the side of the Colorado net and stuffing it under Francouz's pad to bring the Ducks back within one heading to the third.

Vatrano's multi-goal game was the 13th of his NHL career.
Anaheim came out firing early in the third, nearly finding the equalizing on several occasions in the first few minutes of the period but unable to get anything by Francouz.
The Ducks kept pushing though and were finally rewarded with 10 minutes play on a remarkable play by Terry and an opportunistic finish by Henrique. As the Avs tried to rim the puck around the boards up the left side of the zone, Terry picked the puck off the wall, spinning to free space in the middle of the ice and then sliding a pass across the crease to Henrique for the tying goal.

The goal extended Henrique's scoring streak to seven games, matching the longest run of his 12-year NHL career. Henrique has scored in six of his last seven games and leads the Ducks with 18 goals this season. Since the beginning of November, Henrique is tied-for-27th among NHL leaders in goals.
Terry has four points in his last two games (1-3=4). His next assist will match his career-high set last season, with 33 games still to play.
McTavish gave Anaheim its first lead 24 seconds later, skating one-on-one into the offensive zone before using Makar as a screen and beating Francouz to the blocker side from distance.

The goal was the second game winner of McTavish's 57-game NHL career, and his first since his NHL debut in Oct. 2021. The 19-year-old McTavish now has 10-18=28 points in 48 games this season.
With an assist, Silfverberg has points in consecutive games (0-2=2).
The Avalanche pushed for the tying goal throughout the game's final minutes, but the Ducks survived the furious attack with some help from the posts and a few more clutch saves by Gibson. Vatrano then sealed the win and his own hat trick with 49.7 seconds to play, putting the finishing touches on a winning road trip for the Ducks.

The Ducks will return home Saturday to host the Arizona Coyotes on Women in Sports Night at Honda Center.