By The Associated Press

DENVER – Vitaly Kolesnik stopped 20 shots in his NHL debut, and Alex Tanguay had a goal for the third straight game and added two assists to lift the Colorado Avalanche to a 4-1 victory over the struggling Boston Bruins on Wednesday night.

Milan Hejduk, Brett McLean and John-Michael Liles also scored for Colorado, which won for the fourth time in six games.

Marco Sturm scored his third goal in four games since being traded from San Jose with Wayne Primeau and Brad Stuart for Boston captain Joe Thornton. The Bruins just didn’t have many other good scoring chances and gave up too many at the other end to lose for the 11th time in 14 games.

They are 2-2 since dealing Thornton, the Boston captain, last week.

Kolesnik certainly didn’t make it easy on the Bruins in what could be the start of a shakeup for the Avalanche.

Colorado called up the 26-year-old player from Kazakhstan on Tuesday after becoming frustrated with the spotty play of goalies David Aebischer and Peter Budaj.

Aebischer, the Avalanche’s top goalie to start the season, has a 3.37 goals-against average and was pulled after allowing four goals on 16 shots in the first period of a 6-4 loss to Buffalo on Sunday.

Budaj, a rookie, is 3-4-3 with a .904 save percentage, 0-3 in shootouts and has yet to win in four games at home.

Flames 4, Devils 1

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Jarome Iginla scored two goals and had an assist Wednesday night to lead the Calgary Flames to a 4-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils.

Dion Phaneuf and Daymond Langkow also scored, and Phillipe Sauve made 31 saves for the Flames who had three power-play goals.

Calgary took over first place in the Northwest Division. The Flames have 38 points, two more than the idle Vancouver Canucks.

Alexander Mogilny scored for the Devils, who dropped their second straight game.

Calgary took charge with three unanswered goals in the second period.

The Devils picked up two penalties in the first 30 seconds, and the Flames cashed in both power plays to break a 1-1 deadlock.

Phaneuf took a cross-ice pass from Andrew Ference and whipped a shot from the right point past Martin Brodeur 48 seconds into the period.

Stars 4, Panthers 3

DALLAS – Jere Lehtinen scored twice, including the tiebreaker with 15.8 seconds left, and the Dallas Stars handed the Florida Panthers their 10th straight road loss, 4-3 Wednesday night.

With the score even at 3 and Dallas on its fifth power play of the third period, Mike Modano took possession of the puck deep in the Florida zone on a giveaway by defenseman Steve Montador.

Modano passed from behind the net to Lehtinen, who beat goalie Jamie McLennan for his 14th goal.

Defensemen Martin Skoula and Trevor Daley added first-period goals for the Stars, who’ve won four straight and 12 of 14.

Predators 5, Capitals 2

WASHINGTON – Marek Zidlicky and Scott Sullivan scored two goals apiece to lead the Nashville Predators to a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Zidlicky had two power-play goals in the first period and assisted on Sullivan’s second-period score.

Sullivan had an unassisted power-play goal in the third period. Scott Hartnell added an empty-netter with less than a second left in the game.

Nashville (17-4-3) has won four straight and six of seven. Washington (9-15-2) has lost six of seven.

The Predators had two power plays in the first period and struck quickly on each. Zidlicky scored 35 seconds into the first and 33 seconds into the second, with Paul Kariya and Kimmo Timonen assisting on both. Kariya and Timonen are tied for the team lead in assists with 15.

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