Avalanche shut out again at home against the Blues

Former teammate Paul Stastny scored his 17th goal of the year and Jake Allen made 27 saves as the St. Louis Blues handed the Colorado Avalanche their 11th shutout and 44th loss on the season in front of a despondent Pepsi Center crowd.

The Blues wasted little time getting on the scoreboard in the first period, capitalizing on a Rene Bourque holding penalty on Vladamir Tarasenko just 2:59 in. After St. Louis got set up in the Avalanche zone, Blake Comeau would lose a puck battle along the boards and failed to clear the zone. The Blues then worked the puck around to Jaden Schwartz down low, who calmly waited for Francois Beauchemin to slide down on one knee and take himself out of the play before finding Paul Stastny crashing to the net for an easy one-timer.

Not even two minutes later, Matt Duchene won a faceoff in his own zone to Fedor Tyutin behind the net. For whatever reason, he then chose to not pass to any of his available outlets, and instead coughed of the puck right in front of the net, off the skate of Ryan Reaves and on the stick of Kyle Brodziak, who shot the puck past goalie Jeremy Smith for his eighth on the year.

Colorado would wait until halfway through the second period before giving up their third goal of the game. Blake Comeau took an interference penalty and Gabriel Landeskog would fail to effectively clear the puck with a backhand on the ensuing power play. Colton Parayko would save the puck near the blue line, skate toward the goal and dish to Patrik Berglund on the right dot, who fired a rocket past Smith for his 18th on the year.

The Avalanche would generate a number of good opportunities in the third period, but ultimately to no avail. The loss dropped their record to 17-44-3, which still remains dead last in the league.