DENVER -- A quick goal gave the Colorado Avalanche the momentum, and goaltender Calvin Pickard made sure they never lost it.

Pickard made 27 saves for his first career shutout, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the New Jersey Devils 3-0 on Thursday night.

Centers Matt Duchene and Carl Soderberg and defenseman Tyson Barrie scored for Colorado (22-20-3), which gained two valuable points in the tight Western Conference playoff race.

Pickard got his first shutout after a couple of near misses last season while playing sporadically for Colorado. He stopped 14 shots in the third period to get the milestone win.

"It feels nice," he said. "Last year I came close a few times on the road but to actually get it here at home in front of our fans is pretty special. It was a full team effort. Everybody really earned that shutout."

Goalie Cory Schneider had 23 saves for the Devils, who have lost five of six. They can finish 2-2 on the current road trip with a win in Arizona on Saturday.

New Jersey (21-19-5) played just 11 forwards because of the absence of right winger Jordin Tootoo and left winger Bobby Farnham. Tootoo suffered a head injury in Tuesday's loss at St. Louis and Farnham is serving a four-game suspension.

"We don't know who is going to be back and it doesn't really matter now because these are the guys we have and it's going to be up to us to find a way out," Schneider said. "You can't look to the guy next to you or someone else outside of the team right now to kind of get us out of this."

Colorado coach Patrick Roy shook up his defensive corps after Tuesday's 4-0 loss to Tampa Bay.

He recalled a pair of 20-year-olds Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigras and waived Nate Guenin. The two rookies didn't register a point but the team seemed to get the message with a better defensive effort.

"We needed that game," he said. "I really liked the energy at the beginning of the game. We were quick on those pucks. Midway of the third we gave up only 14 shots. It was a good game."

Duchene gave Colorado a 1-0 lead just 51 seconds into the game. Left winger Gabriel Landeskog stole the puck near center ice, defenseman Nick Holden picked it up and passed it to Duchene streaking down the middle. He put the puck high to the stick side of Schneider for the fastest goal to start a game for Colorado this season.

It was Duchene's 22nd of the year. He had 21 in 82 games last season.

"I'm not thinking about last year because it wasn't a good year statistically for me," Duchene said. "It's nice to get 20 but my job is to score and provide offense. I thought our line played really well tonight and generated a lot of stuff."

Barrie made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal at 7:55 of the second when he poked in center Nathan MacKinnon's rebound. It was his eighth of the season.

"You play against a team like this, you don't want to give them those rush plays," New Jersey coach John Hynes said. "We gave them quite a few early. Only scored on one of them, but early in the first we weren't really where we needed to be."

Schneider came off for an extra skater with 2:36 remaining and Soderberg scored into the empty net at 19:32.

NOTES: New Jersey LW Bobby Farnham served the first of his four-game suspension Thursday night. Farnham was suspended for his hit against St. Louis LW Dmitrij Jaskin on Tuesday. ... New Jersey RW Jordin Tootoo was fined $2,000 by the NHL for a violation of the diving-embellishment rule. Tootoo was cited for a violation in the third period of a game against Detroit. He was fined because it was his second offense of the season. ... Avalanche D Chris Bigras made his NHL debut Thursday. Bigras was recalled along with fellow D Nikita Zadorov on Wednesday. In corresponding moves, D Erik Johnson (knee) was placed on IR retroactive to Jan. 4 and D Nate Guenin was placed on waivers. ... Devils LW Tuomo Ruutu returned to the lineup after missing three games with a lower-body injury. ... Colorado C Chris Wagner centered the third line after being a healthy scratch for 14 games. C Mikhail Grigorenko and D Andrew Bodnarchuk were scratched.