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Stastny scores twice as Avalanche end Coyotes' road streak

Jan 18, 2007 - 6:45 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Paul Stastny and a rejuvinated penalty-killing unit helped the Colorado Avalanche cool off the Phoenix Coyotes.

Stastny scored two goals and the Avalanche got through all six shorthanded situations en route to snapping the Coyotes' six-game road winning streak with a 4-3 victory.

Tyler Arnason recorded his 12th three-point game of his career for Colorado, which won its seventh straight against Phoenix, which was starting a four-game road trip.

"We just tried to play our game, keep the puck down low and move it around quickly," Stasny said. "We moved it around well tonight and were rewarded. It's always good, a nice confidence booster.

"They had won seven in a row on the road and they're one of the hotter teams in the league. It's nice to get two points. We had a good penalty kill tonight."

Stastny opened the scoring 7:28 into the first period with his 12th goal of the season and collected his second 7:21 into the third, giving the Avalanche a 4-1 lead.

"I think this is the best game we've played in probably five or six," Arnason said. "I think our whole team is feeling a lot better right now. It's definitely something we can build on. We have a big homestand coming up and if we can play well at home we can move up in the standings."

The Avalanche stand ninth in the Western Conference with 49 points, two behind Minnesota, but play seven of their next eight games at home.

Colorado was able to take command partly due to stopping all five power-play attempts by Phoenix in the first two periods. The Avalanche entered ranked 27th in the league against the man advantage.

"Every power play it seemed like we just gave the puck to the defensemen and they just shut it down," Phoenix right wing Georges Laraque said. "When things are not working and you can't make plays you can just dump it in. We made it just way too easy on them on our power play and that was the difference in the game tonight."

Phoenix staged a late comeback, getting a goal by Mike Zigomanis with 6:25 left and another by captain Shane Doan with 5:08 to play, but Colorado's Peter Budaj stiffened down the stretch to improve to 14-10-2. He made 29 saves.

"At the end, they got two quick goals and kind of got their momentum, but our guys played well defensively," Budaj said. "It's a huge two points for us. I think (Phoenix) has a good offensive team. When they were down 4-1, I think they went all out and started pinching. I think we did a great job, offensively we were very solid and defensively we didn't give them much."

Curtis Joseph had 25 saves for Phoenix, which won a club-record eight straight road games during the 1984-85 season when the franchise was located in Winnipeg.

"We definitely didn't play the way we're capable of playing," Doan said. "When you're in a position that we've put ourselves in and we're so far out of the playoffs, you give away games like this and it makes it really hard.

The loss was the sixth straight at Pepsi Center.

"You have to find ways to win games like these," Doan said. "It's a hard place to win but you have to come in here and win. You have to take advantage of every opportunity you're given and we didn't take advantage tonight.

Doan has nine goals and seven assists in his last 11 games.