The Colorado Avalanche held on to the top spot in the league standings by pouncing on Ducks miscues, and Scott Wedgewood stifled Anaheim with 35 saves in a 4-1 victory to snap the Ducks’ league-high seven-game win streak.

Nathan MacKinnon continued his pace in the NHL scoring race with three assists to extend his point streak to 10 games. Leo Carlsson netted his 100th career NHL point to further his point streak to 11 games.

Lukáš Dostál made 32 saves, including plenty of crucial stops in the first two periods to keep the Ducks alive.

Colorado (11-1-5, 27 points) remained on top of the West and the league. Anaheim (11-4-1, 23 points) also stuck in second in the league standings with its best start by points since 2014-15.

The Ducks continue their three-game road trip at Detroit on Thursday. Anaheim beat former Ducks goaltender John Gibson and the Red Wings at home, 5-2, on Halloween.

Even through all the early success, Anaheim’s most glaring issue had been the tidiness, or lack thereof, on their defensive zone exits. The most dangerous chances the Ducks have allowed this season have been on those turnovers as everyone’s jumping up ice.

Anaheim has generally been able to escape unscathed, but not against a team of Colorado’s pedigree, as the Avs pounced immediately.

On the first shift of the game, the Colorado forecheck cornered Chris Kreider as he went behind the net, and Kreider sent the puck up the boards past Jackson LaCombe. Cale Makar sprinted in at the blueline to take the puck and hit the chaos button on the zone coverage.

Nathan MacKinnon then found a wide open Artturi Lehkonen in the slot, who fired the opening goal by Lukáš Dostál just 28 seconds into the game,

Anaheim has allowed the first goal in 10 of its 16 games this season with a 5-4-1 record in those games. Ducks are 6-0-0 when scoring first.

Again, Colorado’s most dangerous chances came off failed clears, but the Ducks survived into the second period, where the Avs would retake the lead on a broken stick and loose coverage.

A broken stick shot from the point was flubbed into the middle of the Ducks zone, and all three Ducks forwards turned to fly out of the zone, possibly expecting the shot to go wide or to their defenders and push for the rush opportunity.

However, Drew Helleson’s stick broke earlier in the sequence, which prevented him from properly challenging the shooter. Gabriel Landeskog outmuscled LaCombe in front for the rebound for the go-ahead goal, which was the Colorado captain’s first regular-season goal since March 2022 following two missed seasons due to knee surgeries.

Leo Carlsson continued to be the top play driver for the Ducks, as he netted his 11th goal of the season to extend his point streak to 11 games and tie the game 1-1 in the first period (on 11/11).

The 20-year-old’s 11-game streak is the longest by a Duck since Troy Terry’s 16-game streak in 2021. Carlsson has nine goals and 11 assists in his 11-game point streak.

Carlsson’s goal was his 100th career NHL point, which made him the youngest Duck in franchise history to hit that mark. At 20 years, 320 days old, Carlsson beat the previous record holder Paul Kariya, who did it at 21 years, 109 days old in 1996.

Carlsson was also by far the most dangerous Duck on the ice, consistently pushing and creating.

Anaheim’s top line centered by Carlsson with Chris Kreider and Troy Terry on the wings earned 63.72% of the expected goals while on the ice with a 53.85% shot attempt share.

Carlsson is tied for second in the NHL in points with 26, tied with San Jose’s Macklin Celebrini. With three assists against the Ducks to bring his point streak to 10 games, Nathan MacKinnon is out in front with 32 points.

Alex Killorn took a high stick to the face in the third period, which drew blood and sent the 36-year-old to the ice in some distress. Killorn did not return over the final 7:39 of the game.

Beckett Sennecke did not play over the final four minutes of the second period after taking an Olen Zellweger slap shot to the back of his right calf. Sennecke nearly crawled back to the Ducks bench, but the 19-year-old returned to open the third period and played out his regular shifts.

Radko Gudas (injured reserve, lower-body), Mikael Granlund (out, lower-body) and Ryan Strome (activated off injured reserve, upper-body) all participated in Tuesday’s morning skate in Denver. Ducks coach Joel Quenneville told reporters at morning skate that all three are close to playing.

Strome was activated off IR on Sunday and participated in warm-ups, but the 32-year-old did not draw into the line-up. Strome has missed the first 16 games of the season.

“I know that we’ve got some guys that, our guys that are veterans, that are looking to get back in the game or lineup,” Quenneville said on Sunday. “We’ll visit that on a daily basis, but certainly, we like having some hard decisions that we have to make and look forward to it.”

Gudas was put onto IR on Sunday and has missed the last nine games. Despite being given a similar recovery time, Granlund has not been put on IR and has missed the last eight games.

Ducks Postgame Comments from Sunday: