Boston – Peter Budaj stopped 21 shots and Brett Clark broke a scoreless deadlock in the third period to lift the Colorado Avalanche to their fourth straight win, 2-0 over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.
Milan Hejduk scored an empty-net goal and added an assist for the Avalanche, 3-0 on a season-high, five-game road trip. Colorado, the ninth-place team in the Western Conference, entered the night 10 points behind the playoff cutoff.
Budaj, chosen as the NHL’s No. 3 star for last week, made seven saves in each period to record his third shutout of the season.
Tim Thomas stopped 28 shots for the Bruins, whose two-game winning streak ended. Boston is 12th in the Eastern Conference, four places and four points behind eighth-place Carolina.
The Avalanche outshot the Bruins 19-14 in the scoreless first 40 minutes.
Clark gave the Avalanche the lead at 2:57 of the third when he retrieved Hejduk’s pass and fired a slap shot from just beyond the right circle through a crowd and past Thomas.
Hejduk sealed the victory with 39 seconds left, scoring his 26th goal.
