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Avs beat Rangers in Anderson's return

Nov 20, 2010 - 5:32 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Matt Duchene bounced back from an undetected cross-check to the mouth to register a goal and two assists, lifting the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-1 victory over the New York Rangers in Craig Anderson's return to the crease.

Anderson missed more than three weeks with a right knee injury suffered during warmups on October 26 at Vancouver. He made 25 saves after missing Colorado's last 10 games.

Backup goaltender Peter Budaj performed admirably in the interim, posting a 6-3-1 record with a 2.62 goals-against average and .914 save percentage.

"I think timing wasn't an issue," Anderson said. "I think it was more of getting back out there and getting into rhythm. The guys out there allowed me to see the puck tonight and any rebounds I left they were there to clean them up."

David Jones, Kevin Porter, Daniel Winnik and Kevin Shattenkirk also found the back of the net for the Avalanche, who swept their three-game homestand.

Derek Stepan scored the lone goal for New York, which fell to 6-3-0 on the road this season.

Henrik Lundqvist was lifted in the second period after yielding three goals on 16 shots. Martin Biron made eight saves the rest of the way.

Colorado lit the lamp four times in the second period.

Jones buried the rebound of a Chris Stewart shot 64 seconds into the frame to give the Avalanche a 1-0 lead.

Four minutes later, Rangers forward Ruslan Fedotenko drilled Duchene in the face, but no penalty was forthcoming. Duchene was looked over by the trainer on the ice and following a brief trip to the locker room, the 19-year-old returned with a vengeance by factoring in each of the next three goals.

Porter drove the net and deflected a Duchene shot through Lundqvist at 7:21. Duchene then fired a long wrister past the Rangers goaltender at 12:27. Shattenkirk made it 4-0 by sneaking a long shot behind Biron with 4:53 remaining.

"I felt like everything went their way in the second period and that kind of killed the game," Lundqvist said. "I didn't think we were that bad. We needed a couple more saves to keep us in the game but we didn't get them tonight."

Winnik scored on a breakaway at 4:58 of the third period.

Stepan put New York on the board 65 seconds later with his first tally since recording a hat trick in his NHL debut at Buffalo on October 9.

Game Notes

Colorado has won nine of the last 11 meetings...Avalanche defenseman Scott Hannan collected two assists...Duchene and teammate Ryan O'Reilly both played in their 100th career game...Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi skated in his 300th career game.