<div id="subtitle">Stewart ties career high with 3 points, Yip scores twice as Avalanche beat Blues 5-2</div><div><p>Brandon Yip scored two goals, Chris Stewart had a goal and two assists and the Colorado Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 5-2 on Monday night.</p><p>Paul Stastny had a goal and an assist, T.J. Galiardi also scored, and Craig Anderson made 32 saves for the Avalanche. Colorado moved into a first-place tie with idle Vancouver in the Northwest Division.</p><p>Eric Brewer and Erik Johnson scored for the Blues, who have lost three in a row.</p><p>The Avalanche blew it open in the first 6 minutes, 34 seconds of the second period. With the game tied at 2, Colorado got goals from Stewart, Stastny and Yip 4:09 apart to take a 5-2 lead and chase Chris Mason, who allowed five goals on 15 shots.</p><p>Stewart's three points tied a career high, and his 18 goals tie him for the team lead with rookie Matt Duchene. It was Yip's third two-goal game this season, and gives him 11 goals in 22 games.</p><p>Anderson was briefly down on the ice in the second period after taking a puck in the upper chest on a shot by Andy McDonald. A Colorado trainer attended to him in the crease, but Anderson stayed in the game.</p><p>The Blues thought they had cut the lead to 5-3 when T.J. Oshie tipped in a rebound midway through the second period, but the goal was disallowed on a hooking penalty called on Oshie.</p><p>The game provided early excitement. Just 2:21 in St. Louis forward D.J. King dropped the gloves against David Koci, and the fight seemed to provide some spark. Brewer made it 1-0 with a wrist shot at 3:34 of the first, but 28 seconds later Galiardi tied it with a point-blank shot that beat Mason over his left shoulder.</p><p>St. Louis took a 2-1 lead when Johnson beat Anderson with a shot to the short side with 12:01 left in the first. Yip tied it on the power play with 3:18 left in the first period.</p><p>NOTES: Johnson's goal was his first since Nov. 30 at Columbus, a span of 31 games. ... Koci suffered a hand injury in his fight with King and did not return. ... Colorado C Ryan O'Reilly (bruised foot) missed his first game of the season. ... Conklin had 18 saves.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=68728482&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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