EDMONTON, Alberta -- The Colorado Avalanche may be battered and bruised, but the wins keep coming.

Thanks to a 26-save effort from backup goalie Calvin Pickard, Colorado earned a 3-2 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday.

"There are going to be pressure points in games where you have to come up with big saves, after we score, after they score," Pickard said. "That's the difference in hockey games, and I'm just glad I can pitch in and help us win tonight."

Pickard played in place of No. 1 goalie Semyon Varlamov -- who had made the previous five starts. And the Avalanche's two top scorers -- Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene -- were out with knee injuries. Yet, Colorado still remains one point ahead of the Minnesota Wild, who also won Sunday, for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.

"We played really well," Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. "I thought we had a great start and our power play was outstanding. Our puck possession was outstanding, we were able to hold onto the puck in the O-zone and we had a lot of shots. I was very happy with the performance of the team."

The loss mathematically eliminated the Oilers from the playoff race.

Edmonton goalie Laurent Brossoit made his fifth NHL start and is still searching for his first win. However, Brossoit can't be blamed for the loss after his 22-save performance.

Brossoit stopped the first 14 shots he faced and also got a little help from the iron. Eight minutes into the first, Colorado's Jarome Iginla rang a shot off the post after a nice tic-tac-toe passing play in the Oilers' zone.

At 1:19 of the second, Brossoit's resistance was broken. Carl Soderberg's pass found Avalanche teammate Gabriel Landeskog wide open in front of the Oilers' goal. Landeskog, coming off a three-game suspension, used his long reach to tuck the puck past a sprawling Brossoit and into the net.

The Avalanche (38-31-4) doubled the lead at 11:31, moments after their power play expired. Tyson Barrie's shot from the point grazed Oilers defenseman Mark Fayne and beat Brossoit. The Avalanche had held the puck in the Oilers' zone for almost the full two minutes of the preceding power play. Edmonton penalty killer Iiro Pakarinen broke his stick early in the kill and couldn't get off the ice, allowing Colorado to hem Edmonton in its own zone.

Brossoit said he had a chance earlier in the sequence to help out his team and didn't do the job.

"That's just one of those unlucky bounces, but there was a play before that where I had an opportunity to control a rebound," Brossoit said, "so I was pretty upset with myself. If there is anything to look back on this game, a lesson to learn, it's in moments like that, to really bear down on rebound control."

At 2:53 of the third, Oilers fourth-line Matt Hendricks cut the lead in half when he found a loose puck in front of the net and put it past Pickard.

The Oilers (29-39-7) were pushing for a tying goal, but the third-period momentum was broken when Connor McDavid was slapped with a high-sticking minor. On the ensuing power play, the Avalanche made it 3-1 thanks to a tip-in from Blake Comeau at 9:09.

While the Avs got one goal right after an Edmonton penalty expired and another with the man advantage, the Oilers didn't muster anything threatening on four power-play attempts.

"For me, the difference was the power play," Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. "There's nothing close. Their power play zipped it around. We couldn't win faceoffs, so they stayed in our end for two minutes, zipped it around, scored goals and lined up again. And ours turned it over and went to break out again, and then turned it over and went to break out again and then -- guess what -- we turned it over again.

"This group tonight -- (the puck) got on somebody's tape, and it had to get cleaned off, and the puck had to get settled down and we had to get everything the way we liked. We're setting the table, with the fork in the right spot and the spoon in the right spot. By the time you're ready to eat, it's a disaster and the table's all messed up again."

Comeau's goal turned out to be the game-winner, as Edmonton center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a consolation tally with 7.6 second left in the third.

NOTES: Even though G Cam Talbot made 40 saves Friday in a 2-0 win over Vancouver, Oilers coach Todd McLellan said the decision to start Laurent Brossoit against the Avalanche was part of prearranged schedule. "We want him to play at home against a team that's fighting for their playoff lives," McLellan said. ... The Avalanche were without their top point producers thanks to knee injuries; C Matt Duchene and C Nathan MacKinnon were both ruled out. MacKinnon left during a win over Calgary on Friday. ... Colorado D Eric Gelinas, who also left that victory over the Flames, was out with an elbow issue. ... Avalanche LW Gabriel Landeskog returned to the lineup after serving a three-game suspension. ... The Oilers scratched C Anton Lander and LW Luke Gazdic, D Nikita Nikitin and RW Adam Cracknell. ... The Avalanche scratched D Zach Redmond.