Martin Rucinsky scored two goals and Manny Legace beat Colorado for the eighth straight time in the St. Louis Blues’ 4-2 win over the Avalanche on Friday night.
Keith Tkachuk scored an empty-net goal with 30.1 seconds left after Colorado pulled goalie Peter Budaj with 1:03 remaining.
Legace stopped 30 shots to improve to 10-1 in his career against Colorado.
Rucinsky’s power-play goal midway through the third period was the winner. He scored his seventh and eighth goals of the season.
Bill Guerin and Rucinsky scored second-period goals for the Blues. Colorado countered with goals from Joe Sakic and Wojtek Wolski.
Guerin, who also assisted on Rucinsky’s goal, has five goals in his past five games and 17 on the season.
Sakic’s goal inched him closer to tying Paul Coffey for 10th place on the NHL’s career scoring list. Sakic (1,530 points) is a point shy of Coffey.
Wolski, one of the top rookie scorers in the league, has six points in his past three games.
Budaj had a career-best, four-game winning streak snapped. He got the start in net over Jose Theodore.
The Blues haven’t allowed a first-period goal in nine straight games since Andy Murray took over as head coach for Mike Kitchen on Dec. 11. St. Louis is 4-2-3 since the switch.
