DENVER _ Sidney Crosby didn't get the two points he was after at the Pepsi Center Thursday, but his team did.
The Penguins, thanks in part to a two-goal performance by right winger Patric Hornqvist, defeated Colorado, 4-1.
The victory raised the Penguins' record to 34-13-6 and, coupled with Columbus' 3-0 loss to Vancouver, allowed them to move into second place in the Metropolitan Division.
The Penguins are 4-0-1 in their past five games.
Crosby entered the game needing a pair of points to become the 86th player in NHL history to put up 1,000 in a career, but was shut out. He remains tied with Edmonton's Connor McDavid for the NHL scoring lead with 60 points.
Penguins goalie Matt Murray lost his bid for his third shutout of the season at 16:44 of the third period, when Colorado's Gabriel Landeskog beat him from the bottom of the right circle during a power play.
Crosby's disappointment aside, the only real negative for the Penguins was an apparent injury to right winger Bryan Rust, who was hurt late in the second period and did not return to the game.
Rust was hurt when Avalanche defenseman Mark Barberio knocked him into goalie Calvin Pickard. He appeared to hurt his right hand, wrist or arm, and went directly to the locker room.
There was no immediate word on the nature or severity of his injury; Hornqvist replaced him on Crosby's line.
Colorado has the worst record in the NHL, and the Penguins played at _ or below _ the Avalanche's level for much of the opening period.
Nonetheless, they scored the only goal of those 20 minutes, as Phil Kessel beat Pickard from the inner edge of the left circle at 4:01 to cap a two-on-one break with Matt Cullen.
Cullen got the only assist on the goal, Kessel's 18th.
The Penguins have opened the scoring in each of their past six away games.
The Penguins subsequently had two opportunities to pad their advantage during power plays _ Avalanche defenseman Cody Goloubef was penalized for cross-checking at 9:42 and Colorado was caught with too many men on the ice at 12:40 _ but failed to convert either.
Colorado had a 13-11 edge in shots at the intermission, and probably had more quality scoring chances during the first.
Twenty seconds into the game, Avs right winger Mikko Rantanen hit the right post after a giveaway by Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin, then put another shot of the post about 2{ minutes later.
Penguins goalie Matt Murray was forced to make two quality stops during his team's first power play, denying Landeskog from close range, then turning aside Nate MacKinnon on the rebound.
Penguins winger Tom Kuhnhackl left the game after being hurt on a hit by Colorado's Nikita Zadorov with just over four minutes left in the first period, but returned for the start of the second.
Zadorov was penalized for holding Crosby at 3:37 of the second, and the Penguins needed just 13 seconds to capitalize on it.
Hornqvist got the goal when he beat Pickard on the short side from between the left circle and the crease, off assists from Kessel and Justin Schultz.
The sloppy play that characterized the first period continued through much of the second, but the Penguins managed to keep Colorado off the scoreboard and Hornqvist made it 3-0 with his 17th of the season at 18:38.
Schultz picked up his 30th assist of the season by getting the puck to Hornqvist, who put a backhander past Pickard to make it 3-0.
Kunitz closed out the scoring with an empty-net goal at 19:23 of the third.
