Ducks Fall 5-3 to Colorado in Rookie Faceoff

Carey Terrance, Nathan Gaucher and Nikita Nesterenko scored, but the Ducks fell to 1-1 in the 2023 Rookie Faceoff tournament with a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche today at City National Arena.

The loss, just Anaheim's second in regulation at the tournament since 2016, dropped the Ducks to 13-2-3 during that span.

Gaucher and Nesterenko scored power-play goals for Anaheim, giving the Ducks three goals on the man advantage and one shorthanded goal through two games.

Gage Alexander took the loss in net for Anaheim with 17 saves.

Despite the setback, the Ducks conceded just 22 shots on net and have now allowed a tournament-low 49 heading to Monday's finale.

Armed with a deep prospect pool, Anaheim elected to shuffle its lineup from Friday's win over Vegas, inserting 2023 draft picks Konnor Smith, Rodwin Dionicio and Vojtech Port on defense.

Terrance opened the scoring for Anaheim midway through the first period, fighting off two Colorado defenders to win the race to Ben King's rebound and backhanding the bouncing puck over Avalanche netminder Ivan Zhigalov's shoulder.

The middle frame saw all sorts of back-and-forth action, with Colorado striking three times in the first five minutes of the period on goals by Ivan Ivan, Owen Allard and Ryan Sandelin, while Anaheim responded with a pair of power-play markers.

Gaucher's scored Anaheim's initial tally on the man advantage, finding open space in the slot and shoveling home a loose puck before before Zhigalov could get set.

Nesterenko scored minutes later on another broken play in the slot, swatting a rebound chance from the right faceoff circle home for Anaheim's third power-play goal of the tournament.

Nesterenko has points in each of Anaheim's first two tournament games (1-1=2). Acquired from Minnesota at last season's trade deadline, Nesterenko scored his first NHL goal with the Ducks last season and appeared in nine NHL games.

Colorado went right back ahead though a few shifts later with what would prove to be the game-winning goal, when defenseman Jeremy Hanzel beat Alexander off the rush on right wing. 

Ivan hit the empty net with 1:22 to seal the Colorado victory.

The Ducks conclude their 2023 Rookie Faceoff schedule Monday afternoon (12:30 p.m.) against the Los Angeles Kings at City National Arena.