Colorado Avalanche beat St Louis Blues 4-3
Paul Stastny lit the lamp with the game-winning goal and assisted twice, as the Colorado Avalanche edged past the St. Louis Blues 4-3, on Tuesday night.
Milan Hejduk and David Jones each also scored a goal for Colorado, who halted their 10-game losing streak. Erik Johnson also notched a goal, while Peter Budaj made 42 saves to earn the victory.
Patrik Berglund and Chris Stewart both found the net for St. Louis, who lost to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday. Andy McDonald also added a goal, while Ty Conklin turned away 23 shots in the losing effort.
Colorado got off to a blazing start, scoring a pair of goals to take control of the play early in the first period. The first goal came just three minutes into the opening stanza when Jones tucked in a pass from Stastny for his career-best 20th goal of the
season.
Hejduk registered the second goal to double the advantage at 2-0, on a power play just after the halfway point of the same period. Berglund then reduced the deficit to 2-1 with his 16th goal of the season, just after the halfway mark of the opening
frame.
Stewart tied the game at 2-2 on a power play with his third goal in two contests with nearly two and a half minutes remaining in the second. Colorado then restored their advantage once again at 3-2 with five minutes left in the third period, as Johnson skated
with the puck along the left boards, fought his way to the slot and stuffed the puck into the net.
An excited Johnson said after the game, "Lots of different emotions. I just wanted to make sure I didn't celebrate with the wrong bench. I wanted to make sure I went by the right side to make the fist pumps. But it was a very wonderful feeling to score against
your old team in your old building, in your first game back after the trade."
Stastny then scored an insurance goal to restore Colorado’s two-goal edge at 4-2, with nearly two and a half minutes left in the game, as he fired a backhander into the net from the slot. It proved to be fortunate, as Andy McDonald pulled St Louis to within
another goal at 4-3, just 22 seconds later. The goal came when Nikita Nikitin slipped a centring pass from the right side of the net to the front, where McDonald knocked the puck home.
In the final minute, the Blues pulled Conklin out of the net for an extra skater, but failed to find an equaliser.
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