DENVER -- Patrick Roy's decision to go with Calvin Pickard paid off in a big way for the Colorado Avalanche coach.

Pickard made 38 saves, Gabriel Landeskog had a goal and an assist, and the Avalanche beat the Florida Panthers 3-2 on Thursday night to spoil Jaromir Jagr's record-setting night.

Jagr had an assist for his 1,850th career point, tying him with Gordie Howe for third all-time. He is 37 points behind Mark Messier for second.

He has 27 assists this season and 1,107 in his 22-year career. At 44, he leads the first-place Panthers in points with 48 and is tied for first in goals with 21. He was hoping to celebrate in a win after Florida dominated the third, but Pickard came up with 24 saves in the final 20 minutes to preserve the win.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "We put ourselves in a hole, just pushing in the door, but the door closed."

Matt Duchene and Mikkel Boedker also had goals for Colorado and Tyson Barrie had two assists.

Florida (36-20-8) got goals from Erik Gudbranson and Brian Campbell and Roberto Luongo stopped 23 shots.

With Tampa Bay's win Thursday the Panthers and Lightning are now tied atop the Atlantic Division with 80 points. Tampa Bay has one more win.

Roy named Pickard the starter after the recent struggles of No. 1 goalie Semyon Varlamov. Varlamov was pulled from Tuesday's loss at Minnesota after giving up three goals in the first period. Pickard stopped 15 of 16 shots in relief.

Roy announced the switch Tuesday and Pickard rewarded him with a big performance.

"The thing that I like about him is his swagger," Roy said. "He seems very confident right now in front of the net. He looks big and he's moving well. I love that intensity that he's bringing, the compete level that he's bringing on the ice."

The Panthers came on strong at the start of the third and nearly tied it twice. Pickard stopped Quinton Howden on breakaway 3:30 in and then made a goal-line save in a scrum a minute later.

Florida had 13 shots in the first five minutes of the period.

"It seemed like a tale of two games," Pickard said. "In the first two periods they were really looking for that late guy, they were really selective on their shots. Then they came out in the third and literally threw everything at the net."

Colorado (33-29-4) had a couple of chances to extend its lead. Nathan MacKinnon was awarded a penalty shot when he was hooked but Luongo made the save.

"I was watching some video on his shootout moves and usually when he came in with speed, he would go backhand blocker side but for some reason he went back to his forehand and shot it, and my glove just happened to be there," Luongo said.

Later Luongo made a diving save on Jarome Iginla.

Luongo came off for an extra skater with 1:20 left but Florida couldn't tie it.

Florida outshot Colorado 24-8 in the third.

"We had a great period, just a little bit too late," Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. "The young goalie made some great saves for them."

Jagr tied Howe when he got the second assist on Gudbranson's goal that tied the game at 1-1 at 9:42 of the first.

The Avalanche took a 2-1 lead into the first intermission after Boedker's first goal with the team. He got a pass from Barrie, steadied the puck with his skate and lofted a shot off Luongo's pads at 13:50. It was his 14th of the season.

Landeskog opened the scoring with a power-play goal at 5:45.

Colorado went ahead 3-1 when Duchene scored at 4:55 of the second. It was his team-leading 27th and tied his season high set in 2010-11, his second year in the NHL.

Campbell cut it to 3-2 with his sixth goal of the season at 12:42 of the second.

NOTES: Florida RW Jiri Hudler and RW Teddy Purcell, acquired Saturday, did not travel with the team to Colorado after making their Panthers debuts against Winnipeg on Tuesday. The two players are still waiting to have paperwork completed for their U.S. visas. They are expected to join the team in Arizona on Saturday. ... Four Avalanche players were selected to rosters for the World Cup of Hockey this fall in Toronto. C Nathan MacKinnon (North America), G Semyon Varlamov (Russia), LW Gabriel Landeskog (Sweden) and C Mikkel Boedker (European) were named to preliminary rosters. ... Florida C Garrett Wilson, a healthy scratch Tuesday, started Thursday on the third line. ... Avalanche D Eric Gelinas, acquired from New Jersey on Monday, sat out Thursday due to a back injury.