ANAHEIM — For the Ducks, a promising start with parallels to a triumph two nights earlier receded into adefeat at the hands of some of the most gifted mitts in the league, those of Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche, who prevailed 4-2 at Honda Center on Friday night.

The Ducks had won consecutive games for just the second time this season and were looking for their second three-game surge of the campaign after Wednesday’s toppling of the league-leading Winnipeg Jets. But following a wobbly 25 minutes, the Avalanche had other ideas, winning their second game in two nights and for the sixth time in eight outings.

Leo Carlsson and Alex Killorn each scored for the Ducks and John Gibson stopped 19 shots in defeat.

Colorado’s big three of Makar, MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen combined for two goals and seven points. Valeri Nichushkin contributed a goal and an assist. Parker Kelly also scored, shorthanded, in support of goaltender Scott Wedgewood, who made 29 saves.

Troy Terry drew a late penalty but the Ducks failed to convert on the power play and, 32 seconds later, allowed an empty-netter to MacKinnon with 1:19 remaining in the match.

With 6:55 to play, the Ducks drew within a goal when a broken play off the rush struck gold. A disrupted pass into the slot was backhanded toward the net by Pavel Mintyukov and changed direction off of Killorn’s stick for his seventh goal of 2024-25.

A mere 3:30 into the third period, Makar and his power-play unit finally knocked down the door they’d been banging on all night. MacKinnon’s seam pass from the left corner to the right faceoff circle set up Makar’s short-side scorcher to make it 3-1.