SUNRISE, Fla. -- This was the kind of night the Colorado Avalanche haven't had many of lately, killing off all five of their penalties and scoring a season-high seven goals.

Then again, the Avalanche set franchise records for fewest wins (22) and points (48) last season. It was mostly misery all of last year.

On Saturday night, however, Colorado scored four straight goals -- including two within 41 seconds -- snapping a four-game losing streak with a 7-3 win over the Florida Panthers at the BB&T Center.

"It's big," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of his team's first road win since Nov. 19 at Detroit. "When you lose a handful in a row, you have to stick with the process."

The process is made easier when your goalie -- Semyon Varlamov -- makes 39 saves, many of them spectacular.

The Avalanche (13-13-2) also got goals from Mikko Rantanen, a tying score from Nathan MacKinnon, a tiebreaking deflection from Alexander Kerfoot, insurance markers by Erik Johnson and Colin Wilson and empty-netters from Matt Nieto and Carl Soderberg.

"It was a good team win," Rantanen said of the across-the-board contributions.

Florida (11-14-4) got goals from Aaron Ekblad, Denis Malgin and Jonathan Huberdeau but was unable to avoid its fourth loss in the past five games. Malgin has four goals this season -- all of them within the past six games.

Florida's James Reimer, who is filling in for injured starter Roberto Luongo, made 23 saves and took some heat from coach Bob Boughner for his performance.

"Every team has breakdowns, and that's when you need your goalie to make a big save," Boughner said. "We didn't allow a lot of chances tonight. But the ones we did went in the net."

The first period featured two goals. Colorado scored when Rantanen put back a shot by Mark Barberio. Florida tied the score with just 2.6 seconds left in the period when Huberdeau's cross-ice pass found a trailing Ekblad.

"I think they were changing," Huberdeau said of Florida catching Colorado making a substitution. "We tried to get the offense going fast."

Florida went ahead 2-1 on Malgin's breakaway goal with 4:51 expired in the second period. Unleashed by a Jamie McGinn pass, Malgin raced in and beat Varlamov glove-side.

But that's when the Avalanche of goals began.

Colorado tied the score on MacKinnon's goal. Twenty seconds after Colorado had killed off a J.T. Compher slashing penalty, MacKinnon skated right down the middle of Florida's defense -- badly beating defenseman Mike Matheson -- before lifting the puck over Reimer's glove.

Compher, ironically, got the primary assist.

The Avalanche took a 3-2 lead just 41 seconds later. Tyson Barrie, standing just inside the blue line, fired a 62-footer that went in off of teammate Alexander Kerfoot, who had set up a screen and was battling Panthers defenseman Ian McCoshen for position.

Johnson's goal, with 11:59 expired in the third, came on a drop pass from Nieto. Johnson's shot deflected off of Florida rookie forward Dryden Hunt's right knee.

Wilson's goal two minutes later gave Colorado a 5-2 lead.

Florida pulled Reimer for an extra attacker and got the goal by Huberdeau to cut its deficit to 5-3. But Colorado made the Panthers pay with those two empty-netters, clinching the win.

One of the interesting individual battles was won by MacKinnon, a center and the first overall draft pick in 2013. He won his duel with Ekblad, a defenseman and the first overall selection in 2014.

But Boughner said the injuries to two-thirds of his top line -- center Aleksander Barkov and right winger Evgenii Dadonov -- hurt his team's chances to negate MacKinnon.

"Those heavy minutes and that big body of (Barkov on MacKinnon), face-offs, stick on puck, those kinds of things," Boughner said. "That's what 'Barkie' does so well against the best players.

"I think that caught up to us, not having 'Daddy' and 'Barkie' in the lineup. Sooner or later, it will catch up to you."

NOTES: Colorado killed off a four-minute double-minor penalty in the second after D Tyson Barrie high-sticked Florida C Denis Malgin, drawing blood. Florida got three shots on goal during that power play. ... Panthers C Aleksander Barkov, who was hit in the jaw/face by the shoulder of Winnipeg's Jacob Trouba on Thursday, missed the game but could return on Monday at the Detroit Red Wings. ... Panthers RW Evgenii Dadonov (shoulder) missed his seventh straight game but is skating and could return next week. ... Panthers LW Micheal Haley leads the NHL this season with seven fights. When he scored the tiebreaking goal on Thursday, it was just his seventh goal in parts of eight NHL seasons. ... Colorado, building for the future, has nine picks in the first three rounds of the next two drafts.