Matt Duchene‘s frustration is mounting as his point totals don’t.

For the Avalanche’s 4-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday at the Pepsi Center, coach Jared Bednar dropped the slumping Duchene to Colorado’s third line at the outset and for much of the game, between Carl Soderberg and Joe Colborne.

Asked his reaction to the move after the game, Duchene said politely: “I’m not going to give you much on this. I can’t right now. … This is crazy. Know what? I’m going to keep working, be a good team guy. I’ve been here before. I can work out of it. That’s the way things have gone this year.”

Duchene has gone pointless in the last 10 games, and has one goal and eight assists in his past 24 games.

Bednar said Duchene wasn’t in the doghouse. “He’s out there trying, he’s working, and we have to find a way to get him on the board,” Bednar said. “So he’s going to move around a little bit here. He played probably with three or all four lines tonight at some point and we have to find a way to get some of those guys productive.”

Colborne had been a healthy scratch in Colorado’s previous three games and has one goal since his opening night hat trick against Dallas. Soderberg also has struggled all season and came into the night without a point in his past 15 games.

Bednar said he had expected Colborne “to come in hungry” after his recent scratches. “He played last week a little bit with Soderberg,” Bednar added. “They had a pretty good game, the game they played together. So I wanted to try and juggle the lines around a little bit and see if we couldn’t get some production there.”

The second line was J.T. Compher between Sven Andrighetto and Mikko Rantanen, while the top line again had Nathan MacKinnon centering Gabe Landeskog and Rene Bourque.

Matt Nieto and Andrighetto had the Avalanche goals in the loss that snapped Colorado’s modest winning streak at two games. Nieto has five goals in 29 games since being claimed on waivers from San Jose on Jan. 5, while Andrighetto’s first score for Colorado came in his fourth game since his acquisition from Montreal for Andreas Martinsen on March 1.

The Avalanche, now 19-45-3, has won two in a row four times this season, but has failed each time to stretch the streak to three games.

Colorado led 1-0 after one period on the strength of Nieto’s goal at 9:38, but the Senators stormed back with scores from Fredrik Claesson, Alexandre Burrows and Mike Hoffman and were up 3-1 after two. Ryan Dzingel’s 13th goal of the season at 11:22 of the third made it 4-1 and Andrighetto scored a meaningless power-play goal in the final seconds. Related Articles September 12, 2020 Chambers: Nathan MacKinnon is not your typical Lady Byng winner

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Soderberg and Colborne had the assists on Andrighetto’s late goal, so they made the scoresheet.

Former Avalanche goaltender Craig Anderson had to make only 14 saves for the Senators, including only two in the third period, while getting his second win over Colorado in 10 days. He had 22 saves in the Senators’ 2-1 victory at Ottawa on March 2. The win also gave him 147 with the Senators, moving him out of a tie with Patrick Lalime and making him the franchise’s all-time leader.

The Avs’ 16 shots on goal tied their lowest total this season, and they also had 16 at Tampa Bay on Oct. 20 and at Montreal on Dec. 10.

BOX SCORE: Senators 4, Avalanche 2

The Avalanche faces the Arizona Coyotes Monday night at Glendale before playing a back-to-back set against the Red Wings Wednesday at the Pepsi Center and Saturday at Detroit.