TAMPA, Fla. -- Looking for a stronger effort after a lackluster showing in the previous game, the Colorado Avalanche responded with a 4-0 victory against the previously undefeated Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday at Amalie Arena.

Colorado's Matt Duchene scored his first two goals of the season and added an assist, and Patrick Wiercioch finished with a pair of assists. Carl Soderberg notched his second of the season, Andreas Martinsen scored his first, and Semyon Varlamov recorded his 21st career shutout after finishing with 27 saves for the Avalanche (3-1-0).

"We are showing we have a lot of fight," Duchene said. "It doesn't matter how good we are on paper or how good we're not on paper when we play together as a group. We have a great group in here, talented group, and we're learning that we have to go out and play. You have to go out and compete and play with structure, and that was the message before the game. We were able to achieve that."

Ben Bishop made 12 saves while taking the loss for Tampa Bay (3-1-0).

"We have to be better than that on home ice," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "We can't give up four goals."

After being outshot 20-6 in the opening period against Washington on Tuesday, Colorado wanted a better start against the Lightning.

The Avalanche answered that call and were rewarded when Duchene scored late in the first period. A bouncing puck jumped over the stick of Stamkos -- who finished as a minus-3 -- allowing Duchene to skate in alone on Bishop. Bishop made the initial save before Duchene was able to smack the rebound with 24.1 seconds left in the period.

The Avalanche struck again in the final minute of the second period as Duchene got his stick on a shot from Wiercioch for the deflection past Bishop with 51.2 seconds left in the middle frame.

"That's our best start so far of the young season," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "We came out and we were skating, we were working, making good puck decisions, had a good first period. Then it just carried on from there ... I thought it as a great bounce-back game for our team. To me, that's probably the new bar for our team right there."

The two-goal deficit marked the third time in four games the Lightning fell behind by two goals and the fourth consecutive game they allowed the opening goal. Tampa Bay was able to overcome that in the first three games.

"You can't keep playing from behind," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We've played now in four straight games. Now, have we deserved to be playing from behind in all these games? I can't sit here and say that. I can't say we deserved to be playing from behind (Thursday), but we were.

"You just can't keep testing fate because eventually you are not going to be able to come back, and we didn't (Thursday)."

Tampa Bay tried to shake things up by shuffling around the defensive pairings and the line combinations, but the move did not produce the desired effect. And any hope of overcoming a deficit for the fourth time this season was erased at 7:53 of the third period.

Joe Colborne sent a puck around the boards. It hit a stanchion near the corner with Bishop out of the net and caromed right to the stick of Martinsen, who fired the puck in to the vacated net.

Soderberg finished off a two-on-one at 12:22 to make it a 4-0 game.

"I thought we worked hard," Avalanche forward Jarome Iginla said. "We played the type of road game you want to talk about. We kept it simpler, we kept it to the walls, kept chipping it out, chipping it in. We end up getting good breaks out of it. It's the way you want to draw it up, and fortunately it went our way and we feel good about that.

"We were definitely ready to play these guys because we had two tough games in a row. So this feels a lot better."

NOTES: Colorado RW Rene Bourque was scratched due to a groin injury and is listed as day-to-day. ... Avalanche C Ben Smith returned to the lineup after being a healthy scratch against Washington on Tuesday. Smith appeared in his 200th career game. ... Thursday marked the 20th anniversary of the first game played at Amalie Arena. On Oct. 20, 1996, the Lightning defeated the New York Rangers in what was then called the Ice Palace. ... Lightning rookie D Slater Koekkoek was sent to Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Wednesday after he was scratched for the first three games. ... Tampa Bay called up veteran D Matt Taormina, who was scratched. ... Colorado C John Mitchell missed his fourth consecutive game with a hip injury. ... D Eric Gelinas was a healthy scratch for the Avalanche.