DENVER, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Pavel Datsyuk and Johan Franzen both scored in the first and third periods Thursday to boost the Detroit Red Wings over Colorado 4-2.
The Avalanche suffered their first loss of the season and it was also the first setback for new Colorado Coach Patrick Roy -- who will go into the record book tied with his former Montreal coach Mario Tremblay for most consecutive wins to begin a coaching career, six.
San Jose and Colorado came into the night as the only two unbeaten teams in the NHL and both lost.
After Franzen and Datsyuk gave Detroit a 2-0 lead through one period, Colorado came back to tie it on second-period scores by Erik Johnson and Gabriel Landeskog.
Franzen snapped the tie on the power play 7:10 into the third and Datsyuk gave the Red Wings some breathing room with 6:25 remaining.
Jonas Gustavsson stopped 38 shots for Detroit, a winner of four in a row. Semyon Varlamov made 24 saves in the loss.
The game was marred by an injury to Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall, who was taken from the ice on a stretcher following a hit into the corner boards by Cody McLeod.
McLeod was assessed a 5-minute major penalty along with a game misconduct.
