Colorado's Paul Stastny takes a shot on Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo, as Canucks defenceman Sami Salo, left, comes in to cover in Saturday's game in Denver. (David Zalubowski/Associated Press)

The Vancouver Canucks couldn't solve goalie Craig Anderson, and they remain winless to open the 2009-10 NHL season, falling 3-0 to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday afternoon in Denver.

The Avalanche, a team that many expected to struggle in their rebuilding process, improved to 2-0-0.

Colorado capitalized on their power-play opportunities, going 2-for-5 with the man advantage.

Wojtek Wolski and Paul Stastny each had a goal and an assist to pace the Avalanche. Anderson stopped 35 shots to secure his first shutout with the Avalanche.

Anderson was steady throughout the game. He made a glove save on a blistering slapshot by Alexander Edler in the first period and poked the puck away from Daniel Sedin on a breakaway in the second.

"You don't really think. When you think, you're going to hurt yourself," said Anderson. "I just tried to read and react. When he went to his backhand, I went to my stick."

Anderson's last NHL shutout was on Dec. 11, 2008, when he blanked Edmonton 2-0, while he was with Florida.

"It's only two games, let's not get ahead of ourselves," said first-year Avalanche coach Joe Sacco. "But he's come up big in both games."

Canucks goalie Roberto Luongo allowed three goals on 27 shots.

Wolski, Stastny and Milan Hejduk were the most dangerous unit on the ice, giving the Canucks' defence fits and making life difficult for Luongo.

Wolski's goal, which stood up as the winner, came on a 3-on-2 rush at 14:52 of the first period. Stastny slid a puck pass along the ice right on the tape of Wolski's stick, and he put the puck past a sprawled Luongo, who has allowed seven goals in two games.

The Canucks (0-2-0) got into penalty trouble in the second and third periods and the Avs took advantage with Stastny redirecting a pass from Hejduk over Luongo's pads at 15:16 of the second period. Darcy Tucker's power-play goal at 5:23 of the third cemented the victory.

Vancouver was 0-for-3 on the power play despite plenty of chances.

"We need to capitalize on the opportunities that are there," Canucks associate coach Rick Bowness said. "Some of the shots are missing the net. It's not like we're not creating enough opportunities."

With files from The Associated Press