Eurolanche

Smith of Avalanche gets first NHL win

Jeremy Smith made 32 saves for his first NHL win and the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 at Pepsi Center on Saturday.

Smith, 27, started because Calvin Pickard was unable to play because of a stiff neck.

Gabriel Landeskog had two goals and an assist for Colorado (17-40-3), which jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period.

Sam Reinhart, Marcus Foligno and Evan Rodrigues scored for Buffalo (26-25-10). Robin Lehner made 25 saves.

Blake Comeau gave the Avalanche a 4-2 lead at 16:07 of the second period when he put in the rebound of Nathan MacKinnon's shot for his eighth goal and first in 18 games.

Foligno made it 3-2 at 9:55 of the second when tapped in a loose puck from the crease for his 10th goal.

The Sabres closed to 4-3 at 17:40 of the period on Rodrigues' first goal of the season with a shot past Smith's glove.

The Avalanche took a 3-1 lead in the first period on goals by Landeskog, Mikhail Grigorenko and Tyson Barrie.

The Sabres made it 3-1 on Reinhart's power-play goal at 17:11 when he converted the rebound of Jack Eichel's point shot for his 14th goal.

Landeskog deflected Mark Barberio's shot past Lehner 2:06 into the game with his 12th goal for a 1-0 lead. Grigorenko came from behind the net to score from the right hash marks during a 4-on-4 situation for his seventh goal at 12:42 of the first period to make it 2-0.

Barrie was in the lower portion of the right circle when he beat Lehner to the far side with his fifth goal at 14:24 to give Colorado a 3-0 lead.

--by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com--