Recap
Avalanche 3, Predators 0
Associated Press

DENVER (AP) - The Colorado Avalanche enjoyed a night of rarities at the Pepsi Center: goals from Bob Boughner and Brett Clark and chants of "Abby! Abby!" for the first time in more than a month.

Scuffling goalie David Aebischer snapped a personal four-game losing streak in Colorado's 3-0 win over Nashville on Tuesday night. He stopped 32 shots and his second shutout this season and 12th of his career sent the Predators to their fourth straight loss.

"It was awesome for Abby," Boughner said. "There's been a lot of scrutiny the last few weeks with our goaltending. They just need some confidence. He was a star tonight and he looked very, very confident back there, and it showed in our team play. When he's stopping the big plays, it adds something to our team."

So do the goals from unlikely sources.

"It's a bonus getting goals from guys that are unexpected because it takes the pressure off the other guys," said Clark, a defenseman who scored his career-best third goal of the season. "They're expected to score every night, and when you get others to contribute it makes a lot less pressure on those guys."

Even rarer was Boughner goal, his first in nearly two years.

"That's the job of our line. Get it deep, cause some commotion, be physical and try to get some garbage goals," Boughner said.

Boughner, a defenseman playing on the fourth line, picked up a rebound off of Alex Tanguay's shot in front of the net and put it past Tomas Vokoun at 15:23 of the first period. It was the first goal since Jan. 28, 2003, for Boughner, who hadn't even dressed for 19 of the Avalanche's 41 games this season.

"It was nice to jump out to a lead. Everybody knows I've been in and out of the lineup a bit and I've seemed to find a spot at right wing," Boughner said. "It feels good to get my first, but even better to kick-start my team. It was a weird first period until that goal. It was a good one for us."

Aebischer won for the first time since Nov. 29, and his performance was all the more gratifying because the Avs were short-handed for half of the third period, when they killed five penalties.

"Our PK was a big key tonight," Aebischer said. "We played really well. They have a really good power play, (Paul) Kariya and (Steve) Sullivan on each side. It's pretty tough to defend, but we did a good job."

The Predators were 0-for-10 on power plays, killing two themselves by taking penalties. During their four-game skid, they've converted just one of 27 power plays.

"When we should shoot, we are passing, and when we should pass, we're shooting," Predators coach Barry Trotz said. "We are a little bit out of whack there."

On their last power play, they yanked Vokoun with 2:35 left to secure a 6-on-4 advantage but still couldn't break through to avoid their first shutout this season. And Tanguay scored an empty-netter with 19 seconds left - the only shot for Colorado in the third period.

"We had a bunch of chances," Nashville's Scott Hartnell said. "You look at the names on our power play, and we should have two or three goals off that each night. Goalies can stop the puck if they are able to see it, and we didn't do a good job of that. We had a bunch of shots there at the end, and they just weren't going in."

Trotz said it has to do with effort as well as execution.

"The more this league changes, the more it stays the same, you have to put pucks and people in front of the net and keep loose pucks alive," he said.

The Avalanche broke through on their third power play when Joe Sakic made a crossing pass to Clark, who beat Vokoun to the glove side in the second period.

Sullivan had a short-handed breakaway for Nashville with two minutes remaining in the second period but missed the net. It was that kind of night for the slumping Predators, who lead the league with six wins when trailing heading into the third period but couldn't muster a comeback against Colorado, which beat Nashville for the first time since Nov. 24, 2003.

Aebischer was just glad to put 2005 behind him after a miserable month of December.

"It happened before, it'll probably happen again to have slumps," he said. "I just hope it's not as long as this one."

Notes: Colorado and Nashville play their series finale Feb. 2 in Nashville. ... Aebischer's first shutout of the season was Nov. 25 against Columbus.


Three star selections
1st:   DAVID AEBISCHER
2nd:   BOB BOUGHNER
3rd:   BRETT CLARK
Winning Goaltender
David Aebischer

Losing Goaltender
Tomas Vokoun

SCHEDULE

HOME
AWAY
PROMOTIONAL

STANDINGS

WESTERN CONFERENCE
  TEAM GP W L OT GF GA PTS
1 p - CHI 48 36 7 5 155 102 77
2 y - ANA 48 30 12 6 140 118 66
3 y - VAN 48 26 15 7 127 121 59
4 x - STL 48 29 17 2 129 115 60
5 x - LAK 48 27 16 5 133 118 59
6 x - SJS 48 25 16 7 124 116 57
7 x - DET 48 24 16 8 124 115 56
8 x - MIN 48 26 19 3 122 127 55
9 CBJ 48 24 17 7 120 119 55
10 PHX 48 21 18 9 125 131 51
11 DAL 48 22 22 4 130 142 48
12 EDM 48 19 22 7 125 134 45
13 CGY 48 19 25 4 128 160 42
14 NSH 48 16 23 9 111 139 41
15 COL 48 16 25 7 116 152 39

STATS

2012-2013 REGULAR SEASON
SKATERS: GP G A +/- Pts
P. Parenteau 48 18 25 -11 43
M. Duchene 47 17 26 -12 43
P. Stastny 40 9 15 -7 24
J. McGinn 47 11 11 -13 22
J. Mitchell 47 10 10 5 20
R. O'Reilly 29 6 14 -3 20
G. Landeskog 36 9 8 -4 17
T. Barrie 32 2 11 -11 13
C. McLeod 48 8 4 4 12
M. Hejduk 29 4 7 -7 11
 
GOALIES: W L OT Sv% GAA
J. Giguere 5 4 4 .908 2.84
S. Varlamov 11 21 3 .903 3.02
Avs Alert
coloradoavalanche.com is the official Web site of the Colorado Avalanche. The Colorado Avalanche and coloradoavalanche.com are trademarks of the Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc.  NHL, the NHL Shield, the word mark and image of the Stanley Cup and NHL Conference logos are registered trademarks of the National Hockey League. All NHL logos and marks and NHL team logos and marks as well as all other proprietary materials depicted herein are the property of the NHL and the respective NHL teams and may not be reproduced without the prior written consent of NHL Enterprises, L.P. Copyright © 1999-2013 Colorado Avalanche Hockey Team, Inc. and the National Hockey League. All Rights Reserved.