EditorsNote: rewords seventh graf
Pavel Francouz stopped 27 shots, Gabriel Landeskog, Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky scored, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the New York Islanders 3-1 on Wednesday night in Denver.
Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar had two assists each to help Colorado snap a three-game skid (0-2-1).
Semyon Varlamov had 26 saves and Brock Nelson scored for the Islanders, who went winless on their four-game road trip as they were outscored 11-2.
Varlamov played his first game in Denver since signing with the Islanders last summer. He spent eight seasons with Colorado and won a career-best 41 games in 2013-14.
The Avalanche won despite losing four players in a span of eight days. Forward Mikko Rantanen was the latest to go down, sustaining an upper-body injury Monday night against Tampa Bay. Colorado announced he will be out for several weeks.
Martin Kaut, recalled from the AHL on Tuesday, made his NHL debut in place of Rantanen.
New York played most of the game without forward Derick Brassard after he was hit in the head by the puck late in the first period. Teammate Ryan Pulock's shot went off a skate and hit Brassard, who stayed on the ice before skating off.
Brassard played one shift in the second period but missed the rest of the game.
The Avalanche outshot the Islanders 14-4 through the first half of the opening period and broke through when Donskoi deflected Makar's shot from the point past Varlamov at 9:07 to make it 1-0. It was his career-high 15th goal of the season.
Colorado made it 2-0 when Burakovsky took a drop pass from MacKinnon as he entered the New York zone, skated between the circles and sent a snap shot over Varlamov's left shoulder 45 seconds into the second period. It was his 20th of the season.
Landeskog scored his 16th goal of the season and put it away when he redirected MacKinnon's shot from the point past Varlamov at 7:43 of the third.
With Varlamov off for an extra skater, Nelson scored at 17:46 to give New York its second goal on the four-game trip. It was his 22nd of the season.
--Field Level Media
