Journeyman goalie Smith steps in for Pickard

Trades? Who needs trades? This shouldn’t change anything, of course, but the Avalanche jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead on goals from Gabe Landeskog, Mikhail Grigorenko and Tyson Barrie and held on to beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-3 Saturday at the Pepsi Center.

Journeyman goalie Jeremy Smith, in the Avalanche net because scheduled starter Calvin Pickard came down with a stiff neck, had 34 saves in claiming his first NHL win at age 27 — in his third NHL appearance. It wasn’t pretty, but it counted.

After the Avalanche scored three times in the first 14:24, the Sabres, coming off their five-day bye, awakened and made it interesting. Sam Reinhart’s power-play goal at 17:11 of the first got the Sabres on the scoreboard, and then Marcus Foligno — briefly a Denver resident as a grade-schooler when his father, Mike, was an Avalanche assistant coach — scored to make it 3-2 at 9:55 of the second.

Avalanche winger Blake Comeau’s eighth goal of the season put Colorado back up by two, but Sabres center Evan Rodrigues’ wrist shot eluded Smith’s glove and the Avalanche lead was 4-3 going into the third. And the lead held up, with Landeskog icing it with an empty-netter with 39.4 seconds left.

Colorado (17-40-3) ended its latest losing streak at three and won for only the second time in its last 10 games.

The Avalanche next heads out on the road to face Philadelphia, Ottawa and Winnipeg. Wednesday’s 1 p.m. NHL trading deadline falls between the first two games.