Andrew Raycroft made 35 saves in place of the injured Kari Lehtonen to earn his first victory of the season, and Michael Ryder scored twice as the Dallas Stars defeated the host Colorado Avalanche 3-1 on Monday.

Ryder made it 2-0 at 14:36 of the third period and added an empty-netter for his ninth of the season as the Stars ended a four-game road losing streak.

Kevin Porter scored with 3:36 remaining and Semyon Varlamov made 32 stops en route to his eighth loss in his last nine games for the Avalanche, who fell to an NHL-worst 4-9-0 at home.

Eric Nystrom banged home a rebound of Vernon Fiddler’s shot at 15:56 of the first period for his eighth of the season and third in the last three games for Dallas. Loui Eriksson then sent Ryder in alone and he beat Varlamov upstairs to give Dallas a two-goal cushion.

Raycroft’s best saves came in the second period. He denied Matt Duchene and Milan Hejduk on a 2-and-1 when he stopped Duchene’s wrist shot on the short side, and later robbed Paul Stastny and Ryan O’Reilly from point-blank range.

Colorado, which defeated Edmonton 5-2 on Saturday, hasn’t won two straight since Oct. 17, when it finished a five-game winning streak en route to a 5-1-0 start to the season.

The Stars haven’t scored on the power play in their last 21 attempts and don’t have a goal with a man advantage in their last eight games.