EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Jeff Friesen scored with 5:27 remaining as the New Jersey Devils notched consecutive home wins for the first time this season with a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
Just 42 seconds after Colorado tied it on Milan Hejduk's team-leading eighth goal, Friesen intercepted the puck outside the Avalanche zone and skated over the right wing as bruising center Mike Rupp headed toward the net.
Friesen benefited from Rupp's screen and snapped a shot past the stick side of goaltender David Aebischer for his third goal of the season.
"That opens the whole thing up when you get a big body going to the net," Friesen said of Rupp. "The goalie has to think, 'Is this guy going to tip it or is this guy going to be there for me.' It gave me time first of all to get a shot off, it freezes the goalie. It's not an overpowering shot, (just) throwing it and trying to hit a spot."
While Friesen noted Rupp's presence, Colorado coach Tony Granato pointed to his team's carelessness.
"When you play a team like New Jersey, you've got to play as simply as possible," Granato said. "You can't force anything. When you force something, you make a mistake, they are going to take advantage of it. That's what they wait for. They thrive on that and that's what they are built on. When we made a mistake, it was in the back of our net."
Colorado pulled Aebischer for an extra attacker in the final minute but was unable to pressure goalie Martin Brodeur and New Jersey nearly scored into the empty net. Brodeur made 20 saves.
The Devils have won three in a row, coming from behind in the last two. Defenseman Brian Rafalski and Patrik Elias each had a pair of assists for the defending Stanley Cup champions, whose 0-3-1 stretch at the Continental Airlines Arena was their longest without a home win to start the season since 1983-84.
Alex Tanguay and Joe Sakic had a goal and an assist apiece for Colorado, which had won the previous three meetings with the Devils. The Avalanche also defeated the Devils in seven games in the 2001 Stanley Cup Finals.
Colorado center Peter Forsberg sat out for the first time this season with a slight groin pull, while left wings Paul Kariya and Peter Worrell remain on injured reserve.
"It would've been disappointing for us to lose this game because you're not going to be able to play these guys again with a lineup like that," Devils coach Pat Burns said. "To get the points that we could get off them today was crucial. The next time we play them, they will have the Forsbergs in the lineup, the Kariyas, the Worrells and those guys."
The Devils visit Denver on November 30.
"It's going to be a tougher situation and you are going to be in their barn," Burns said. "I would've been awfully disappointed if we had lost that game today."
The Avalanche were on the power play with 87 seconds left in the opening period when Sakic fired a one-timer past Brodeur for his second goal of the season and a 1-0 lead.
Moments later, Dan Hinote was penalized for holding and defenseman Scott Niedermayer capitalized by putting a rebound of Rafalski's shot behind Aebischer with 34 seconds left in the first. But Colorado regained the lead 30 seconds later as Tanguay put a rebound of Sakic's shot by Brodeur.
New Jersey dominated the second period, outshooting Colorado, 15-6, and tying it at 9:18 on Scott Gomez's first goal of the season.
Defenseman Colin White gave the Devils their first lead 9 1/2 minutes into the third with his first goal of the season. With Avalanche right wing Travis Brigley draped on his back, White took a pass from Turner Stevenson and put a one-timer from the slot by Aebischer.
"Turner, Mike Rupp and Erik Rasmussen, our grind line as we like to call them, they were in there for about 35 seconds, cycling it and causing havoc and kind of created a hole in the middle," White said. "Turner made a great play. I just kind of swatted at the puck."
