Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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Avs Beat Thrashers to Stay Hot on Road

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[March 12, 2008]  ATLANTA, Ga. (AP) -- Andrew Brunette scored two goals and the Colorado Avalanche got a goal and two assists each from Joe Sakic and rookie David Jones in a 5-2 victory over the Atlanta Thrashers on Tuesday night.

The Avalanche moved into a tie for first place in the Northwest Division .

Colorado has won 10 of 14 on the road, seven of eight overall.

Jones scored his first career goal to make it 4-1 in the second. Now in his third stint with Colorado this season, Jones assisted on Brunette's 16th goal and Sakic's 10th goal to help the Avalanche take a 2-0 lead in the first.

Colby Armstrong had an unassisted goal midway through the first for the Thrashers, who lost their second straight and have just one victory in 11 games.

Milan Hejduk's 22nd goal came in the first minute of the second after Scott Hannan passed from the left circle and beat goaltender Johan Hedberg stick side.

Brunette's 17th goal, which pushed the lead to 5-1 late in the second, improved Colorado to 24-5-2 this season when scoring on the power play.

Hedberg, who dropped to 13-20-5, stopped 18 of 23 shots before coach Don Waddell pulled him in favor of Kari Lehtonen to begin the third.

Jose Theodore is 23-18-2 after stopping 22 of 24 shots and winning his seventh start in eight games.

Erik Christensen's 11th goal ended the scoring with 3:52 remaining.

Notes: C Peter Forsberg (groin) missed his second straight game for Colorado. ... After fighting Stars D Steve Ott in a 3-0 loss at Dallas on Sunday, D Ruslan Salei returned to Denver to have his injured eye examined. ... C Paul Stastny earned his team-high 37th assist and third in four games on Brunette's second goal. ... The Avalanche have killed 22 straight penalties. ... Colorado improved to 5-1 this month, 16-2-2 in March over the past two seasons. ... Alexei Zhitnik, Atlanta's highest-paid defenseman, was a healthy scratch for the third straight game. ... Colorado, 8-1 against the Eastern Conference, ended a three-game losing streak to the Thrashers to earn their first win in Atlanta since 2002.

[Associated Press; By GEORGE HENRY]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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