Tyson Barrie rediscovered his goal-scoring touch, J.T. Compher finally was rewarded for his tenaciousness and the Avalanche did just fine without suspended defenseman Erik Johnson.
The result was an impressive 4-2 win against Pittsburgh on Monday at the Pepsi Center in the final home game before the Christmas break.
The Avalanche also overcame a slow start, defensively anyway, and got some clutch saves from Semyon Varlamov down the stretch to complete the two-game season series sweep of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.
It's the first time since 2002-03 they won both games against the Penguins.
"We're growing as a team, we're getting better," coach Jared Bednar said. "We did a lot of really good things. We had a little bit of a slow start, were a little tentative with the puck and we needed some big saves from Varly, but we had some get up and go on the offensive side of it.
"We were skating on the pucks and creating and had lots of pace to our game in the first (period) when we got out of our zone. We cleaned that up a little in the second and into the third. We were a dangerous team and playing on our toes. I think it just shows we're gradually becoming more consistent at what we're supposed to do."
The Avalanche won two of three on the homestand to improve to 10-6-1 at the Pepsi Center, where they'll play nine of the first 10 games after Christmas. They're in Los Angeles on Thursday and Arizona on Saturday.
With a 16-15-2 record and 34 points, they were four points out of the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference before Tuesday's games and nine points ahead of last season's ugly pace (12-20-1).
While Barrie has been collecting plenty of assists, he'd gone 26 games without a goal before he ripped a shot by goalie Matt Murray's glove in the first period. He scored a power-play goal in the second with Carl Soderberg in front making it tough for Murray.
Now, with 27 points (four goals, 23 assists), Barrie is tied with Dallas' John Klingberg for the NHL scoring lead among defensemen. He has six points (two goals, four assists) in a three-game point streak.
Barrie was firing away just about every time he had the puck. He had five shots on goal, five others that were blocked and one that was wide of the net.
"I loved the way he was shooting the puck," Bednar said. "Every time the puck got on his hands at the blue line and on the rush he was getting his body around it and getting it back to the net. That's what we need and he ends up scoring two goals because of it. He got himself in a good spot and he was letting it go."
Said Barrie: "That’s the game plan, shooting the puck. Our power play was struggling as of late until last game, so we’re just still trying to shoot.…
The Avalanche have three power-play goals in the past two games after failing to score one in the previous five. The Penguins didn't allow a power-play goal in their previous eight games. As for Compher, he encountered some misfortune before batting in the rebound of Sven Andrighetto's shot for a 3-1 lead with 1:40 left in the second period, his fifth goal and first in nine games.
He rang a shot off the post midway through the first period and later scored but had the goal disallowed because of goalie interference by Andrighetto.
“I’m feeling good," Compher said. "I mean, it’s nice to get one to go in. It’s been a little bit and I’ve had some chances, but I’ve gotten some more ice time recently and I’m just trying to take full advantage of it.…
Andrighetto, who has gone 16 games without a goal, generated plenty of speed and had two assists to go along with four shots. Compher had four shots as did Colin Wilson.
On a night when the top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen was relatively quiet -- Rantanen set up Barrie's second goal and scored into an empty net -- the Avalanche got some much-needed secondary scoring.
"That line was really good," Bednar said of Compher's unit. "I liked all three of those guys. Tenacious on pucks, strong in the battles and the wingers, Andrighetto and Wilson, were winning all the D-zone wall battles. Getting to the hard areas of the ice, getting in the inside of the ice in the offensive zone, they did a lot of really good things."
Defenseman Patrik Nemeth logged a season-high 24:34 and had six blocked shots. He was followed by blue liners Barrie (24:31), Mark Barberio (19:46), Nikita Zadorov (19:20), Anton Lindholm (14:33) and Samuel Girard (13:32).