Red Wings Late comeback falls short in Denver

Matt Duchene scored twice in Colorado’s four-goal first period and Peter Budaj stopped 26 shots, helping the Avalanche halt the Detroit Red Wings’ three-game winning streak with a 5-4 victory.

Paul Stastny, Kevin Porter and David Jones added goals for the Avalanche in a game that featured two of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams.

Colorado chased Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard 14:15 in after he surrendered four goals on 10 shots. Howard was replaced by Joey MacDonald, who allowed only one goal the rest of the way on 16 shots.

Jan Mursak netted his first NHL goal, and Brian Rafalski, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom also scored for the Red Wings.

Holmstrom deflected in a shot midway through the third period to trim what had been a three-goal deficit to a 5-4 margin. The Red Wings pulled MacDonald for an extra skater with just over one minute remaining, but couldn’t score the equalizer. T.J. Galiardi cleared the puck from the Colorado zone to end the game.

Later in the period, Zetterberg poked a shot through the legs of Budaj, running his point streak to 11 games. He has six goals and 10 assists over that span.