DENVER _ Rickard Rakell and Ryan Kesler each scored their 17th goals of the season and the Ducks won for the fifth time in six games, taking a 4-1 victory over the lowly Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.
Jakob Silfverberg also scored for the second straight game and Corey Perry added an empty-net goal as the Ducks (23-13-8) grabbed sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division as San Jose was idle. John Gibson made 33 saves and is 7-1-3 over his last 11 starts.
Silfverberg got the Ducks off on the right foot when he blocked former Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin's point shot and went off in the other direction to snap a wrist shot past Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov for his 13th goal.
Colorado tied the score in the first period when speedster Nathan MacKinnon jumped on some confusion between Ducks defense partners Hampus Lindholm and Josh Manson in the neutral ice. MacKinnon went in on a breakaway and beat Gibson with a move to his backhand.
The Ducks answered immediately with Rakell scoring just 51 seconds later on a wrist shot from distance that Varlamov never saw as Ducks winger Corey Perry got in his viewpoint as he wrestled with Colorado's Patrick Wiercioch for position in front of the net.
Kesler made it a two-goal lead for the Ducks with some follow through on a play to spot when Varlamov lost the puck after Shea Theodore had tried to score on a wraparound. Theodore got a point in his first game after being recalled from the AHL's San Diego Gulls.
The Ducks were in control throughout as they killed off all three Colorado power plays they faced. Their once-struggling penalty kill has erased 31 of 35 man-down situations over the last nine games.
Ducks captain Ryan Getzlaf returned to the lineup Thursday after missing the last four games because of a lower-body muscle injury. Getzlaf had an assist on Rakell's goal, as did low-scoring defenseman Kevin Bieksa.
Perry, who had been stuck on seven goals since Dec. 13, had two final cracks at ending a 13-game drought without a goal and finally got it on the second try after Rakell gave him a pass to softly deposit it into the empty cage.
