Denver, CO (SportsNetwork.com) - Jarome Iginla led a Colorado scoring blitz with a pair of goals as the surging Avalanche delivered a 5-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators at Pepsi Center.
Iginla's big night was aided by markers from Brad Stuart, Erik Johnson and Daniel Briere, as well as another tremendous performance from Semyon Varlamov, in Colorado's fourth win in five games.
Coming off a spectacular 54-save effort in Tuesday's shutout of Chicago, Varlamov was busy again in turning aside 36-of-38 Ottawa shots.
"We're starting to build some confidence," Iginla said. "That Chicago game was a big game and it carried over tonight."
Craig Anderson didn't come close to matching Varlamov's level of play, allowing three goals on just nine chances before being pulled for Robin Lehner just past the midway mark of the second period.
"It was not Andy's fault," Senators forward Mika Zibanejad remarked. "We've got to do better with blocking shots and we did not do that (tonight)."
Mark Stone and Bobby Ryan had the Ottawa goals in the Senators' third straight loss.
Colorado recorded only seven first-period shots, but connected on two of them to support another clean frame from the razor-sharp Varlamov.
Iginla began the scoring by ripping a quick shot from the right circle past a screened Anderson 8:20 into the contest. Stuart made it a 2-0 lead with 2:40 left in the stanza on the veteran defenseman's first goal of the season, a long one-timer that got by Anderson with traffic in front of the Ottawa net.
Stone's successful attempt off a beautiful no-look give from Erik Karlsson with just over three minutes elapsed in the second period gave the Senators some life, but the momentum was brief.
Just 53 seconds after Stone's goal, Johnson restored Colorado's two-goal margin by landing a long drive with Iginla stationed right in Anderson's line of sight. Varlamov made the 3-1 lead stand into the intermission with 13 more stops in the second.
"He's a good goalie and you've got to keep more focus with him," said Zibanejad of Varlamov. "You've got to be better in the shooting lane."
Iginla's second of the night, a power-play tally just 23 seconds into the third that came off a nice centering feed from Alex Tanguay, started a scoring flurry during the early stages of the final period.
Ryan turned a bad giveaway from Johnson into his 12th goal of the season with 1:05 gone in the session. The Avalanche answered just 1:35 later, however, when Tyson Barrie's cross-ice pass to Briere resulted in a 5-2 Colorado advantage.
Game Notes
Tanguay recorded two assists to reach 800 career points ... Varlamov's 54 saves on Tuesday were the most in a road shutout in NHL history, breaking the mark that Anderson held with a 53-save effort for Florida against the Islanders on March 2, 2008 ... Ottawa went 0-for-4 on the power play and hasn't scored in 29 chances with a man advantage over its last eight games ... Colorado had won seven straight in the series prior to the Sens' 5-3 win in Ottawa on Oct. 16.
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