Avs blank Panthers 3-0 to end home stand

Paul Stastny scored two goals and Craig Anderson notched his seventh shutout of the season to lead the Colorado Avalanche past the Florida Panthers 3-0 Thursday at the Pepsi Center.

With the victory the Avalanche moved to within three points of the idle Vancouver Canucks in the Northwest Division.

Thursday’s first period was scoreless, with the main action being a fight between the Avs Cody McLeod and Florida’s Gregory Campbell.

Stastny got the first of his two goals at 4:59 of the second period when he backhanded the rebound of a Brett Clark shot past Panthers goalie Tomas Vokoun.
Stastny’s second goal came one second after a 5-on-3 power play expired. Chris Stewart sent a pass across the crease to Stastny, who flipped it past Vokoun for a 2-0 lead.

Matt Hendricks closed out the scoring at 16:25 of the third period when he stole a loose puck, broke past the Florida defenders and beat Vokoun with a backhand shot.

Anderson, who left Florida to sign with the Avs last summer, stopped all 27 Panther shots,

The Avs went 2-1 on the home stand, beating St. Louis and Florida and losing to Vancouver.

NOTES
-Peter Mueller, who had 17 points in 54 games for Phoenix before coming to Colorado at the trading deadline, has 7 points in his 5 games with the Avs.
-The Avs play 6 of the next 9 on the road.

NEXT
The Avs go on the road for two, Dallas on Sunday and St. Louis on Tuesday.

Bruce Wilkie is a Colorado semi-native, having moved to Denver in 1971. He has worked with pro and college hockey teams since 1975 and now covers the Avs for thehockeywriters.com.