John Mitchell and defenseman Erik Johnson also scored for the Avalanche, who posted a shootout victory at the New York Rangers on Thursday after dropping the first two contests of their four-game Eastern Conference trek. Semyon Varlamov made 23 saves in the triumph.

Martin Havlat opened the scoring and blue-liner Eric Gelinas snapped his seven-game drought for New Jersey, which ran out of energy in the second half of a back-to-back after blanking Washington on Friday. Cory Schneider stopped 26 shots in his 18th straight start.

Gelinas put the Devils ahead 8:21 into the third period with a wrist shot through traffic off a faceoff, but Johnson fired a sharp-angle shot between Schneider’s pads just over four minutes later to tie the game. Duchene had two chances at a rebound before putting it past Schneider in the late going to give Colorado its first lead of the contest.

Havlat batted in a rebound 2:04 into the first period. Mitchell chipped a centering feed over Schneider 6:07 later for a 1-1 tie that would hold through the rest of the first period and all of the second.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Martin Brodeur holds the Devils franchise record for consecutive starts to begin a season with 19. … Colorado had not won a road game in regulation since Oct. 13. … Avalanche D Tyson Barrie assisted on Duchene’s goal. They share the team scoring lead with 13 points.