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Even when the Avalanche seemingly couldn’t put the puck in the Pacific Ocean from the end of the Santa Monica Pier of late, Semyon Varlamov’s teammates have tightened up in front of him.

Plus, the Russian goalie has been stingier in his past three starts, including when he had 32 saves in Colorado’s 4-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center. He now is 2-1, with a 1.33 goals-against average and a .958 save percentage in his three starts that came after he was pulled after allowing five goals in the first two periods at St. Louis Nov. 6.

“I don’t want to talk about my performance,” Varlamov said. “I want to say we play better as a team. Especially today, we score some goals, which has been tough for us lately. We scored four today and I’m happy about it, and we played solid as a team all 60 minutes. Defensively, we play stronger and the (penalty killing) played very well.”

Patrick Wiercioch, Rene Bourque, Blake Comeau and Gabe Landeskog (empty net) had the goals as the Avalanche (7-8-0) salvaged a 2-2 homestand on the brink of a three-game road trip that begins at Dallas Thursday. It was a night of successful returns: Wiercioch was back in the lineup after two games as the healthy scratch among the Avalanche defensemen and Comeau — who was on a line with John Mitchell and Jarome Iginla Tuesday — had missed the previous four games with a groin injury.

“The best defense is a good offense and we had a bit of that going tonight,” said Colorado coach Jared Bednar. “But Varly did make some big saves. We had a breakdown, especially when they started their push in the third period. We needed him to make some big saves and he did.”

For the second game in a row, the Avalanche was without leading scorer Matt Duchene, who suffered concussion-like symptoms after taking a hit to the head against Winnipeg on Friday. But there was progress on that front, with Duchene getting back on the ice at the morning skate Tuesday, wearing an orange no-contact jersey, and then staying out after most of his teammates left the ice to work with assistant coach Tim Army and backup goalie Calvin Pickard. After the game, Bednar said he expected Duchene to be able to go through a full contact practice Wednesday, getting him closer to returning to the lineup.

“He’s still feeling good and he took his baseline test and passed,” Bednar said.

After suffering their fourth shutout loss of the season against Boston on Sunday, the Avs had a prime chance to open the scoring against the Kings, when they were on the power play for over seven minutes of the first period. They didn’t even take advantage of a a 39-second 5-on-3 — plus the 5-on-4 time on either side. The聽Avalanche put only one shot on ex-Colorado goalie Peter Budaj with the two-man advantage.

But it didn’t turn out to be costly, since the Avalanche scored twice in a span of 22 seconds early in the second to take a 2-0 lead.

Wiercioch controlled the puck after a faceoff in the Los Angeles end, went around the net and — as many in the crowd wondered what the heck the former University of Denver defenseman was doing there — saw his wraparound carom off Budaj and in at 1:10. “We were just trying to run a guy down the wall to see if anything opened up,” Wiercioch said. “The coverage was kind of blown for a second there. Usually there’s not a whole lot there from below the goal line, but I saw the goalie coming off the post for split-second and tried to wrap it.”

It became 2-0 when Bourque got his fifth goal of the season at 1:32, as his deflection of a Mikko Rantanen shot made it through Budaj’s legs. It’s both good news and bad news for the Avs that Bourque, the veteran who made the team on a pro tryout in training camp, is Colorado’s second-leading goal scorer, behind only Duchene, who has six. Others are supposed to be more productive, with Bourque a versatile contributor. In Bednar’s latest shuffling, Bourque now is playing on the Carl Soderberg-centered line, also with Rantanen.

“Any goals are good, especially for us when we’re last in the league in goals for,” said Bednar. He added, “The role players tend to go after those gritty goals a little bit more than our skill players, but our skill players need to take a page from the (role players) on some occasions too and make sure we’re funneling pucks and getting bodies there.”

The Kings were within 2-1 after Dustin Brown beat Varlamov on the power play at 19:29 of the second. But Comeau’s shot from the top of the slot got past Budaj as Jarome Iginla skated in front of him at 11:32, giving the Avalanche breathing room. The goal withstood a goaltender interference challenge from the Kings.

“I just got it out in the slot and just tried to throw it on net,” Comeau said. “I knew I had a chance to shoot it and if Iggy’s not in front there, I’m sure (Budaj) just blocks that into the corner. So it was huge that Iggy took his eyes away.”

In his return, Comeau had 14:54 of ice time, including 1:35 when the Avs were shorthanded as the Kings were 1-4 on the power play.

“It was a big confidence booster for myself,” Comeau said. “Any time you miss some time and you get back in and the coach shows that kind of faith in you, it feels good as a player. I wasn’t happy with the way I was playing in the first bit of the season, so it’s nice to get back, fix whatever was going on with my groins, and just come back fresh and not worry about it.”

Nathan MacKinnon, who still has only two goals this season, had a career-high 10 shots on goal against Budaj — but couldn’t break through.

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