Avalanche use power play to hand Canucks fifth loss in row

Nazem Kadri and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and two assists to help the Colorado Avalanche hand the Vancouver Canucks their fifth straight loss, 4-2 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver on Wednesday.

Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar each had a goal and an assist, and Darcy Kuemper made 30 saves for the Avalanche (7-5-1), who have won three straight games and are 5-1-1 in their past seven.
"For us, it's just worrying about the one thing we can control and that being our work ethic," Makar said. "Tonight we got away from that a little bit in the second period and then we started getting back to it in the third, so when we play to our identity like that not many teams can kind of stop our play."
Kadri extended his point streak to seven games (13 points; four goals, nine assists), scoring all three of his points on the power play to help the Avalanche finish 3-for-5 with the man-advantage.
"Attention to detail lately, just trying to execute better, more tape-to-tape passes," Kadri said of the power play. "Guys have been communicating a lot and just trying to dot our i's and cross our t's to execute at a high level. We've got the skill set out there, it's just about executing the game plan, and tonight was one of our better nights on the power play."

Tucker Poolman had a goal and an assist, and Thatcher Demko made 26 saves for the Canucks (5-10-2), who are 2-8-1 in their past 11 games.
"Frustrating to lose, especially with an effort like that," Vancouver coach Travis Green said. "Five-on-five it was one of our better games of the year. Obviously, the penalty kill let us down."
Rantanen scored a power-play goal with a wrist shot through a screen to put Colorado ahead 1-0 at 7:17 of the first period.
Conor Garland tied it 1-1 and ended his 10-game goal drought at 8:52 of the second period after winning a race for a loose puck at the side of the net.
Poolman, in his return from a two-game suspension for high-sticking Colorado forward Kiefer Sherwood on Thursday, scored his first goal since signing with the Canucks as a free agent in the offseason. Kuemper accidentally knocked Poolman's shot into his own net to give Vancouver a 2-1 lead 1:30 into the third period, but the Avalanche scored twice more on the power play in a span of 53 seconds to take the lead.
Kadri tied it 2-2 during a scramble at 2:19, and Makar scored on a one-timer from the top of the left face-off circle at 3:12 to make it 3-2. Makar's goal came 10 seconds after Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes broke his stick on cross-checking penalty following a hit at the other end from Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard.
"Not a good penalty for me to take there at that time," Hughes said. "I was obviously upset, didn't like the hit, but it is what it is. I can't be doing that."

The Avalanche are 6-for-13 on the power play over the past three games despite missing center Nathan MacKinnon (lower body). They were 4-for-38 in their first 10.
"There was a lot of hard work that went into that from our group because we had some early power-play struggles," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "And guys have been digging in. It didn't come easy for us tonight, but we stuck with it on a few occasions and were able to capitalize on a few nice plays. Give them credit, they put the work in behind the scenes and practice, in the video room, and it's starting to come together without a few of our regulars in there."
Vancouver is last in the NHL on the penalty kill (60.3 percent) and has given up 19 goals on 40 chances over its past 10 games.
"Sometimes when the ball's rolling downhill it's hard to stop the momentum, but I thought in ways we took some steps," Green said. "I thought we got a little unlucky on the kill tonight, but we've got to be better. There's no doubt about it."
Landeskog scored into an empty net with 11 seconds left for the 4-2 final.
NOTES:Forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel had one shot and three hits in 10:23 of ice time in his Avalanche debut. He was claimed off waivers from the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday. … Colorado defenseman Bowen Byram missed a second straight game after getting hit in the head Thursday but is with the team and skated Wednesday. … Canucks defenseman Travis Hamonic returned after being sent to Abbotsford of the American Hockey League while the Canucks were on a three-game road trip that ended Sunday. He had two shots, three hits and five blocked shots playing 21:25.