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Wolski, Stastny lead Avalanche past Canucks

Nov 26, 2006 - 5:47 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Wojtek Wolski helped the Colorado Avalanche continue their dominance over the Vancouver Canucks.

Wolski had a goal and three assists and fellow rookie Paul Stastny added a tally and set up two others as the Avalanche posted a 4-1 victory over the Canucks.

Defenseman Brett Clark scored his first goal of the season for Colorado, which has won all three meetings vs. Vancouver this season.

"This was a big win for us as a hockey team," Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. "We played hard and got some good nights from some of our young guys who we asked to step up and they did."

Jose Theodore stopped 29 shots for the Avalanche, who have won four of their last five and are now 5-2-1 against their Northwest Division rivals.

"I went out there with the attitude of challenging the shooters," Theodore said. "That's what we've been working on."

"Jose was outstanding," Quenneville said. "You couldn't ask much more from him. Vancouver can come out firing and we knew that going in. He's been a big boost for us and he showed that tonight."

Vancouver defenseman Kevin Bieksa scored 35 seconds into the third period to cut the deficit to 2-1. But midway through the session, Wolski deflected a wrist shot from defenseman Patrice Brisebois past goaltender Roberto Luongo for a power-play goal to increase the lead back to two.

"It was very satisfying," Wolski said. "I wanted to work hard and make sure I did the little things right. The coaching staff was giving me a lot of opportunities, so I had to make sure I played well."

Clark added another man-advantage tally with 35 seconds remaining to end the scoring.

Luongo stopped 35 shots for Vancouver to fall to 0-7-0 lifetime against Colorado.

"I don't know if I played well enough but I battled for 60 minutes," Luongo said. "I can keep my head up and say I worked hard for the 60."

"We want to be a consistent team and give us a chance to win," said Canucks defenseman Mattias Ohlund, who committed two of Vancouver's nine penalties. "We have a ways to go to be a top team and right now no matter how we look at it, we are not playing well enough."

Of the Canucks' nine infractions, four were for hooking and two more were for roughing.

"Our last two games have all been about two things; our inability to make the other team pay on their mistakes and their ability to make us pay on our mistakes," Canucks coach Alain Vigneault said. "We are not capable of finishing the opportunity and the other team is."