Filppula scores 2 again for Wings in win

Valtteri Filppula scored two goals for the second straight game and Dominik Hasek made 22 saves in the Detroit Red Wings' 4-2 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night.

It was the Red Wings' 11th win in December and their 13th victory in 15 games.

Marek Svatos and Cody McLeod scored, and Peter Budaj had 26 saves for the Avalanche, who had their five-game, home winning streak snapped.

Colorado will be without Joe Sakic for quite a bit longer as the Avalanche captain will undergo hernia surgery on Friday and is expected to miss eight-to-12 weeks. He has been sidelined since Nov. 30.

Jiri Hudler broke a 2-2 tie with 9 minutes left in the second period when his slap shot from the right circle beat Budaj over his left shoulder.

The Avalanche had tied it five minutes earlier when Svatos flipped a rebound of Jaroslav Hlinka's shot over Hasek's shoulder for his 13th goal.

The Avalanche pulled Budaj with 1:10 left and nearly tied it when defenseman Kyle Cumiskey had a clear shot at Hasek, but the goalie made the save. A minute later, Mikael Samuelsson scored into an empty net to seal the win.

Filppula, who had two goals in Detroit's 5-0 win over St. Louis on Wednesday, scored with 2:55 left in the first to make it 2-0. Just 1:32 later, McLeod scored his first NHL goal when he stole the puck from Brian Rafalski and beat Hasek high.

Filppula opened the scoring with a short-handed goal with 7:04 left in the first period. Filppula skated into the Colorado end and put a shot on net that Avalanche defenseman Brett Clark knocked past Peter Budaj while trying to clear the puck.

Notes:@ Colorado F Brad Richardson rejoined the lineup after being activated from the injured list. He had missed five games due to a shoulder injury. ... Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk are 1-2 in All-Star voting among Western Conference forwards. Nicklas Lidstrom leads West defensemen. ... The Pepsi Center was near capacity despite the second major snowstorm to hit Denver in three days.