- (Sports Network) - Paul Stastny registered a goal and an assist to lead the Colorado Avalanche to a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers at the Pepsi Center. Milan Hejduk, Marek Svatos, Brett Clark and Cody McCormick also lit the lamp for Colorado, which had dropped three straight one-goal games to begin the season. Joe Sakic collected three assists and Andrew Raycroft, who signed with the Avalanche as a free agent after spending the last two seasons with Toronto, made 16 saves in his Colorado debut.

"There was no pressure on us," said Sakic of the slow start. "We knew we had to get the job done. We got rewarded tonight. The hard work paid off. Andrew played well, kept us in the game. It was a great game for him."

Mike Richards and Simon Gagne scored for the Flyers, who remain winless four games (0-3-1) into the 2008-09 season.

"It's very frustrating," said Philadelphia forward Daniel Briere. "We did not expect to get off to a slow start like this. We can not start pointing fingers. We got to stay together. There is still a lot of time."

Martin Biron was victimized for five goals on 34 shots for Philadelphia, which was outshot 17-3 in the opening period and trailed 2-0.

With the clubs skating four-on-four, Sakic feathered a cross-ice pass to Clark and his slap shot from the top of the left circle eluded Biron at 9:01 of the first. Rookie defenseman Luca Sbisa was sent to the box for holding later in the period and Colorado capitalized on the power play, as Svatos' wrister beat Biron with 3:52 remaining.

The Flyers caught a break shorthanded with Gagne awarded a penalty shot at the 4:33 mark of the middle stanza. Philadelphia's first-round pick in 1998, Gagne skated in down the right wing, faked the forehand and lifted a backhander past Raycroft. Gagne has scored in four straight games to open the season after missing all but 25 contests a year ago due to concussion problems.

Moments later, with Colorado still up a man, Sakic held the puck below the goal line and found Hejduk in the high slot and the talented Czech fired a shot that was going wide before deflecting off of Flyers rearguard Kimmo Timonen and in behind Biron.

Richards scored on the power play on a rocket from the right circle at 8:25, but McCormick tallied late in the second to give the Avs a two-goal cushion heading into the final period. The rugged McCormick stripped Joffrey Lupul in the neutral zone, collected a perfect cross-ice fed from David Jones and beat a sprawled Biron on the glove side with 35.5 seconds remaining.

Stastny's power-play marker with 8:17 left in regulation capped the scoring.

Game Notes

Colorado forward Wojtek Wolski recorded two assists...The Avalanche went 3- for-11 on the power play, while Philadelphia was 1-for-7...Colorado has won five straight over the Flyers...Before the game, the Avalanche honored defenseman Adam Foote for playing in his 1,000th career NHL game last Sunday in Edmonton...Sakic has collected points in each of his first four games...Stastny has picked up an assist in all four games this season.



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