Avs down Ducks, 5-2

In Denver, Nazem Kadri  hit for a goal and two points on Wednesday night to lead the Avalanche to a 5-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

The points extended Kadri streak to 10.

“‘Naz’ is producing at a crazy level right now and feeling really good, and he looks great out there,” the Avs’ Gabriel Landeskog said. “Everybody realizes that we’re missing one of the game’s best players (Nathan MacKinnon missed his sixth straight game with a lower-body injury), and everybody else is stepping up.”

Darcy Kuemper got the start for the Avs, but left the game for skate problems; he made five saves,

Jonas Johansson made 19 saves in relief role.

“I said on the bench, ‘Again?'” Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said. “You rarely even see it happen even once. I just felt like it’s [Johansson’s] game now and let’s find a solution to the skate problem. The holder is what’s giving him trouble. It’s breaking, the trigger’s not holding the blade in, it’s just falling out, so the solution is he’s going to change holders and put them on the skate he has.”

Sonny Milano scored both Ducks goals.

“Colorado did a good job of beating us at our own game,” Anaheim head coach Dallas Eakins said. “It’s not a good game plan for 14 minutes to play with one less guy on the ice (6-for-7 on penalty kill). It disrupts our flow, we have our best players on the bench, and it taxes our penalty killers.

“The only part of the game that I thought there was any flow for us was about six or seven minutes in the third (period) when we were able to turn over our lines. We’ll have to reassess that. Over the season we’ve done a (heck) of a job of staying out of the box and being disciplined, and we lost it tonight.”

After Milano gave the Ducks a 1-0 in the first period, Cale Makar tied it with under a minute left in the first period.

“He’s a special player and he’s hitting his stride,” Bednar said. “He’s playing well. There’s an element to it where he’s shooting the puck more, and there’s an element where he’s just recognizing what teams are giving him. He’s an elite player. Especially in that position in the offensive zone, he’s as good as anybody on any other team.”

Alex Newhook hit for a goal in the middle frame for the Avs to give them a 2-1 lead.

Nicolas Aube-Kubel pushed the lead to 3-1 midway through the second period.

Kadri added to the lead in the third period to make it 4-1.

Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin  scored for a 5-1 advantage.

Milano added a power play goal with under four minutes left for the 5-2 final.

John Gibson made 31 saves in the Anaheim loss.