DENVER – After two periods, the scoring showed up at Ball Arena. The Vancouver Canucks jumped out to a two-goal lead that the Colorado Avalanche couldn’t erase and the hosts fell, 3-1 on Wednesday night.

Nazem Kadri scored Colorado’s lone goal. Darcy Kuemper made 24 saves.

“Unfortunately, they’re an opportunistic team,” Kadri said. “They’ve got some talent up front and they were able to take advantage of those mistakes.”

Andrew Cogliano, familiar to Colorado Avalanche roster, debuts against Canucks

The Avalanche and Canucks treaded water for two periods. The Canucks found the back of the net twice in the first 3:15 of the third, neither one a good look for Colorado. First, trade deadline pickup Josh Manson couldn’t control the puck along the boards in the Avalanche zone. Vancouver’s Elias Pettersson found Brock Boeser, who ripped his shot through a defender and past Kuemper.

“He just needs to chip it out,” coach Jared Bednar said of Manson.

“That could be something that’s new to him, but for us, we’re getting ready to leave the zone. It’s his job to get it up and out of the zone.”

Less than two minutes later, J.T. Miller finished off the dregs of a 2-on-1. Kuemper came well out of his crease and was stuck there without control of the puck. Miller went behind him and tapped it in.

OT goal from Nathan MacKinnon sends Colorado Avalanche past Edmonton Oilers

“We had some great chances that probably should have (gone) into the back of the net,” Kadri said. “Made some mistakes, they made us pay.”

Something stirred in the Avalanche. Kadri scored on a power play soon after the Canucks went up 2-0. He sent a rebound over Vancouver goaltender Jaroslav Halak, who was effectively – but legally – stuck in the shadow of Colorado’s Valeri Nichushkin.

Bednar pulled Kuemper for the extra attacker. Bo Horvat won a battle with Cale Makar and scored into the empty net.

“I thought our second period was good. That’s when I think we had some real good opportunities to score some goals, but our last little bit of execution and urgency to get pucks to the net wasn’t there,” Bednar said.

In his Colorado debut, newest Avalanche player Andrew Cogliano briefly rolled around with Oliver Ekman-Larsson. The Vancouver alternate captain took issue with a Cogliano hit near the Vancouver bench.

Colorado Avalanche acquire forwards Lehkonen, Cogliano just before trade deadline

It was the final regular-season meeting between the teams. The Avalanche took the first two games.

Colorado remains firmly at the top of the Western Conference while Vancouver used the win to perch three points behind the Dallas Stars for the second wild-card spot.

“The margin for error is going to get smaller and smaller,” Bednar said. “We’re playing desperate teams. And they played well, give them credit.”