Before Manny Legace blew out the candles, he shut out the Avalanche.
Legace, who turned 33 Saturday in Denver, handed Colorado its first shutout of the season, leading Detroit past the Avalanche 3-0 at the Pepsi Center.
"I finally won one on my birthday," Legace said. "I've been playing games on my birthday all my life and lost them all — until this one."
Legace (22-6-2) stopped 28 shots. His fourth shutout of the season and 10th of his career left just three teams who haven't been blanked this year: Detroit, Dallas and San Jose.
The Red Wings are 3-0 against the Avalanche this season, but unlike their first two meetings, when they combined for 17 goals, this one was dominated by defense and missed opportunities on the power play.
Detroit, ranked No. 2 in the league in penalty killing, killed off all seven of Colorado's power plays.
"The power play was terrible," Avs captain Joe Sakic said. "We didn't support one another that well . . . I don't think we generated hardly any chances on the power play."
Ten shots to be exact.
"Every time we got the power play, we didn't do anything," lamented Sakic.
BLUES 4, STARS 3 (OT): At St. Louis, Barret Jackman scored in overtime to give the Blues their second straight victory. Jackman's third goal of the season also snapped the Stars' six-game winning streak. He took a pass from Keith Tkachuk and his shot deflected off of Stephane Robidas' stick and past Marty Turco. Mike Glumac scored his first NHL goal and Dean McAmmond and Vladimir Orszagh also scored for St. Louis. It was the second straight meeting between the Stars and Blues that had finished 3-3 in regulation.
Dallas got goals from Jon Klemm, Jason Arnott and Jere Lehtinen in regulation. Blues goalie Curtis Sanford (8-12-4) made 25 saves while Turco (28-14-2) made 23 saves in the loss.
CANADIENS 2, BRUINS 0: At Montreal, Andrei Markov scored in his return to the lineup and Cristobal Huet got his first shutout for the Canadiens. Markov, who missed eight games with a shoulder injury, scored a power-play goal 10:22 into the third period, putting a rebound of Alex Kovalev's shot off the left post into an open left side. Huet, acquired from Los Angeles following the 2003-04 season, made 35 saves for his fifth career shutout. The 30-year-old Frenchman made several big saves throughout and caught a break late when Sergei Samsonov hit the left post during Boston's seventh power-play opportunity with less than 1:00 remaining.
Sheldon Souray scored a short-handed goal into an empty net with 21.2 seconds remaining.
ISLANDERS 5, PENGUINS 4 (SO): At Pittsburgh, Miroslav Satan notched his seventh career hat trick and added a shootout goal to help the Islanders get the win. Satan, the first player in the shootout, made several moves on Pittsburgh goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury before slipping a low backhander behind him. Trent Hunter, New York's next shooter, also was successful on his backhand. Islanders goaltender Rick DiPietro capped a 44-save performance by stopping Mark Recchi and Michel Ouellet in the shootout. Satan scored all three of his regulation goals on the power play for New York., which has won four of its last five. Sidney Crosby scored his 26th goal after missing Pittsburgh's last game with the flu.
LIGHTNING 5, CAPITALS 0: At Tampa,John Grahame made 29 saves for his third shutout in his past four games and Brad Richards had two goals to help the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Washington Capitals. Grahame stopped Alexander Ovechkin's shot from the right circle with 5 minutes to play, one of his key saves in his fifth shutout of the season.
THRASHERS 6, PANTHERS 4: At Atlanta, Ilya Kovalchuk scored his NHL-leading 36th goal and the Atlanta Thrashers beat the Florida Panthers to snap a seven-game losing streak. The Thrashers' losing streak was their worst since opening the 2002-03 season with nine straight losses. Peter Bondra had two goals, and Marc Savard a goal and two assists for Atlanta's first win since Jan. 18 at Dallas.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, DEVILS 2: At Toronto, Ed Belfour made 36 saves, Alex Ponikarovsky scored twice and the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the New Jersey Devils for just their second victory in 12 games. Tomas Kaberle and Chad Kilger also scored for the Maple Leafs, who were mired in their worst stretch of hockey since winning three times in a 24-game span from Jan. 11 to March 8, 1996.
RANGERS 4, FLYERS 3 (OT): At Philadelphia, Jaromir Jagr scored 1:24 into overtime and the New York Rangers beat Philadelphia to move one point ahead of the Flyers for first place in the Atlantic Division. Petr Sykora scored with 41.1 seconds left in regulation to force the extra period and Marcel Hossa and Michael Nylander also scored for New York, which trailed the Flyers by nine points less than one month ago.
SABRES 2, SENATORS 1 (SO): At Buffalo, N.Y., Thomas Vanek scored the winning goal in the shootout for the Sabres. In the second round, Vanek faked a shot before depositing a wrister into the top right corner past Ottawa goalie Dominik Hasek. Buffalo goalie Ryan Miller then stopped Senators captain Daniel Alfredsson's attempt in the final round to get the win, which pulled the Sabres within four points of the division-leading Senators.
WILD 6, COYOTES 4: At Glendale, Ariz., Marian Gaborik and Wes Walz each scored twice in Minnesota's four-goal second period. Walz added a pair of assists, and Todd White and Pierre-Marc Bouchard also scored to help the Wild win their second straight following a three-game losing streak.
PREDATORS 6, BLACKHAWKS 0: At Nashville, Tenn., Scott Hartnell picked up his first NHL hat trick and added an assist, while Tomas Vokoun made 40 saves for his second shutout of the season for the Predators. Nashville scored four goals in the first period, chasing starting goaltender Adam Munro after the third goal.