Jack Skille and John Mitchell scored in the first period and Semyon Varlamov made a season-high 42 saves to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 3-1 win over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday.
Carl Soderberg added an empty-net goal with 22 seconds remaining to seal Colorado's fifth win in seven games.
Varlamov stopped the first 36 shots until Vladimir Tarasenko spoiled his shutout bid with a power-play goal with 7:05 remaining. It was Tarasenko's team-high 18th of the season.
Jake Allen, starting for the second straight day, had 15 saves for the Blues, who fell to 2-4-1 in December.
Skille and Mitchell scored in a span of 5:41 in the first period as Colorado converted twice on its first five shots against Allen, who made 26 saves in a 3-0 shutout of Dallas on Saturday.
Skille converted on a wrist shot from the slot for his third goal of the season. Mikhail Grigorenko started the play by picking off an errant pass.
Mitchell scored from in front of the net off a pass from Alex Tanguay with 8:10 remaining in the opening period.
Varlamov, who improved to 7-6-2 in his career against St. Louis, stopped 17 shots in the second period highlighted by a pad save off a drive from Jori Lehtera..
St. Louis had won seven of the previous nine games against Colorado.
NOTES: Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games with back spasms. ... The Avalanche have played 17 of their last 24 games on the road. St. Louis will play 11 of its 41 home games in December. ... Tarasenko celebrated his 24th birthday on Sunday. ... The Blues have killed off their last 21 penalties.
