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 They took a good first step Wednesday against a hot team.
Left winger Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and two assists, goaltender
Semyon Varlamov made 28 saves, and the Avalanche beat the Pittsburgh
Penguins 3-1.
Right winger Jarome Iginla and center Nathan MacKinnon also scored
for Colorado.
"It feels good," Iginla said. "We need to get back on the winning
side and just go from there."
Center Evgeni Malkin scored his fifth goal in the past four games
for Pittsburgh, which had its four-game winning streak snapped.
Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 19 of 22 shots for the Penguins.
The Avalanche (28-25-11) have a lot of ground to make up if they
want to reach the postseason again. Colorado trails the Minnesota
Wild by eight points for the final Western Conference wild-card spot
with a chance to gain some ground Sunday in St. Paul.
"It's a big win," MacKinnon said of beating Pittsburgh. "Our goal is
28 more points. We have 18 games left, and it's going to be tight,
but we feel we're confident this month and we can get some wins. We
have to get rolling."
 The Penguins (36-18-9) are third in the Metropolitan Division and
securely in the playoffs barring a collapse in the final 18 games.
They trail the division co-leaders, the New York Rangers and New
York Islanders, by four points.
Iginla gave Colorado a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal 13 seconds
into the second period. He took a pass from Landeskog near center
ice, skated into the Penguins' zone and beat Fleury with a slap shot
to the far side for his 20th goal on the season and 580th of his
career.
It is the second straight season and 16th overall that he scored 20
or more goals.
"Gabe gave me a nice pass across ice," Iginla said. "Maybe they
didn't expect that play. They had a little bit of a tight gap, and I
was able to skate right in. You don't usually shoot that one, but
when you're that close, I tried to use (the defenseman) as a bit of
a screen. Going full speed, you're going right in. Fortunately, it
went in low bottom post."
MacKinnon made it 2-0 at 14:29 of the second when he crashed the net
and tipped in defenseman Jan Hejda's pass from the right circle. It
was his 14th of the season.
"It turned out to be a big goal," MacKinnon said. "Jannie made a
great pass, and it kind of went off my foot. I just went to the
net."
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Pittsburgh struggled to find a rhythm early. The Penguins had just
five shots on goal in the first period and 16 through two before
putting more pressure on Varlamov in the third.
"We just didn't really make plays," center Sidney Crosby said. "To
get shots, you have to execute, get it out of your zone, through the
neutral zone and sustain pressure offensively. We really just didn't
do that until the third."
Malkin cut the lead to 2-1 at 9:45 of the third. He stole the puck
from center John Mitchell, skated deep into the Avalanche zone and
beat Varlamov with his 27th goal of the season.
He nearly tied it a few minutes later, but Varlamov made the stop.
Landeskog then iced it with his 17th of the season at 14:57.
"We had some jump in the third period, but (Malkin) took it to
another level on a couple of those shifts," Pittsburgh coach Mike
Johnston said. "The one he scored on, and the one he almost scored
on where he came in all alone, he looked like he was going to try to
take charge of that third period."
NOTES: Avalanche LW Alex Tanguay played in his 1,000th career game
and 528th in an Avalanche uniform. ... Pittsburgh LW Daniel Winnik
returned to Colorado for the first time since sustaining a scary
head injury Nov. 6 when he was with Toronto. He missed three games.
... Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog and RW Cody McLeod were fined for
their actions at the end of Saturday's loss to Minnesota. McLeod ran
into Wild C Mikael Granlund and then fought D Charlie Coyle.
Landeskog was fined for throwing a punch at Minnesota C Miko Koivu
while both players were on the bench. ... Avalanche C Joey Hishon
played his first regular-season NHL game. He played three playoff
games in 2014.
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