Ducks "find a way" to top Avalanche in overtime

ANAHEIM -- Coming off a season-high five-day layoff, the biggest worry for the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night against the Colorado Avalanche was a cold start.

With the way they've played with their backs against the boards, though, it's not as if it would've mattered.

And once more, the Ducks fell behind against Colorado.

Only they weren't buried.

Anaheim's Corey Perry chipped in a power-play goal off a perfect pass from teammate Ryan Getzlaf with 45.4 seconds remaining in overtime to give the scorching Ducks their sixth straight win with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Colorado Avalanche at the Honda Center.

"I'm getting older," Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau said. "The heart can't take this. But in the end, a win is a win. In a perfect world, you'd like to jump out to a two, three-nothing lead and by the end snuff them right out and not give them anything."

Perry's second goal of the night came after the Ducks won a crucial faceoff on Colorado's side, as Francois Beauchemin -- who had four assists on the evening -- advanced the puck to Getzlaf, who found Perry alone on an island. Perry just needed to beat former Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastian Giguere, and Giguere could not react quickly enough.

"It's not pretty but we find a way," Perry said. "We stick with the game plan and we found out way in the second period."

That Anaheim was in position to win was a surprise as they trailed 2-0 after the first period and 3-2 heading into the third period.

As the Ducks have done so often this season, though, they ignored the early deficit and maintained their approach, moving to 8-2-1 after trailing 1-0.

"Obviously that's not the game plan were looking for, but we're gaining that confidence, that it doesn't matter what happened and we can still come back, and that's a huge feeling," Anaheim's Teemu Selanne said. "That's a team confidence. Still we can make things a little easier, playing for 60 minutes like we need."

Getzlaf tied the game at 3 with 11:11 remaining in regulation after he spotted a resting puck in the goalie box behind Giguere and beat him to the punch.

The Ducks tied the game in the second period on goals by Perry and Selanne, whose power play conversion was the 250th of his illustrious career, moving him past Phil Esposito for third on the all-time list. The Avalanche responded almost immediately after Selanne's goal to regain the lead, though, as John Mitchell scored off an assist from Milan Hejduk.

Colorado scored twice in the first period to stake itself the big lead as Cody McLeod scored less than three minutes into the game at even strength and P.A. Parenteau added a power play goal at the 12:54 mark.

"We had a really good first period; we could've scored probably a few more goals," Hejduk said. "But we didn't. And from that second period on, it seemed like they were taking over the game."

NOTES: Colorado has lost 45 man-games to injury as Steve Downs (knee) is out for the year and Erik Johnson (head) and Ryan Wilson (ankle) remain out indefinitely. ... Anaheim's Cam Fowler (upper body injury) returned to action Sunday after an eight-game absence (upper body injury). ... During the Ducks' extended break, the team's longest layoff since 2008, Anaheim's front office remained active. The team signed scorching goalie Viktor Fasth to a two-year extension. ... Fasth shut out Colorado, 3-0, in the teams' first game of the season on Feb. 6, his first career shutout. ... Colorado has scored power play goals in five of its last six games. ... Anaheim is off to its second best start in franchise history, after going 11-0-4 in 2006-07. ... The Ducks entered the game with the NHL's longest winning streak, longest home winning streak and longest road winning streak. ... Anaheim is tied with Tampa Bay for the NHL lead with nine players with four or more goals.