Jack Kerouac wasn’t on the road as long as the Anaheim Ducks have been.
Bruce Springsteen has had shorter tours.
During their nine consecutive games away from the Honda Center, the Ducks even made a side trip to the White House last week, accepting congratulations from President Bush.
They began the road stretch with four consecutive losses. They finished with five consecutive victories, closing out with a 2-1 win over the Avalanche Tuesday night in the Pepsi Center in a game that almost had a playoff feel to it.
Former Avalanche prospect Samuel Pahlsson’s fourth goal of the season with 4:21 remaining in regulation broke the 1-1 tie. It came on an odd-man rush when the Ducks’ reunited checking line proved capable of producing offensively at opportune times — just as it did in the championship run last season.
On the play, Rob Niedermayer passed the puck out from behind the goal line, and Avs goalie Jose Theodore made the initial save on Travis Moen before Pahlsson put in the rebound.
“It felt like a playoff game, and it was played like a playoff game,” said Theodore, who had 27 saves. The only other goal he allowed was to Teemu Selanne — his first of the season following his return this month — on a second-period 5-on-3.
“I think the 5-on-3 was obviously a bad call on the referee’s second call (on Ian Laperriere for playing with a broken stick), but that’s part of the game,” Theodore said. “I’m happy with the way the guys competed for 60 minutes.”
Defenseman Scott Hannan said the Avs “are disappointed in not getting one or two points out of that game, but we played hard. We controlled the puck, got a lot of shots, got off to a good start. If we play a lot of games like that, we’re going to win a lot of games.”
The Avs had come in with two consecutive victories, and at the end of the night, they were in the Western Conference’s No. 7 playoff position.
“It was a good effort, a good battle,” Colorado coach Joel Quenneville said. “It’s tough to give up an odd-man break in that situation, which is discouraging. But it was a fortunate bounce for them, but I thought everybody battled hard across the board for both teams.”
Colorado lost defenseman Brett Clark to a shoulder injury in the second period and was awaiting word on a prognosis.
The outlook for Clark, Quenneville said, is “probably not good. We’ll know more (today).”
In part because Scott Parker was unavailable with the flu, the Avs went with seven defensemen and 11 forwards against the Ducks, then were even shorter up front when Ben Guite drew a game misconduct — along with Anaheim’s Kent Huskins — on top of a fighting major with three seconds left in the second period.
Marek Svatos’ team-high 25th goal of the season had given the Avalanche a 1-0 lead only 97 seconds into the game, but veteran goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere didn’t let anything else past him and finished with 32 saves.
Avs Recap
Three stars
1. Jean-Sebastien Giguere.
Ducks goalie stopped 32-of-33 shots.
2. Teemu Selanne.
In fifth game back, got his first goal of the season.
3. Rob Niedermayer.
Effective PK work, and had assist on winning goal.
What you might have missed
Todd Bertuzzi, wearing No. 4 because Rob Niedermayer has No. 44 for Anaheim, was booed every time he touched the puck in his first appearance in Denver as a Duck.
Up next
St. Louis, 7 p.m. Thursday at the Pepsi Center
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
