Corey Crawford completed the task to perfection on Sunday night as he made Andrew Shaw’s goal stand up in a 1-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets that stretched the Blackhawks’ NHL-record, season-opening point streak to 18 games.

The Blackhawks are 15-0-3 and show no signs of slowing down.

Crawford earned his seventh NHL shutout and second this season in his first start since Feb. 12. He outdueled Columbus’ Steve Mason, who stopped 26 shots including some sensational point-blank chances.

“I’m seeing the puck well,” Crawford said. “Everyone is doing their job, chipping in. It makes it a lot easier for me.

“Overall I felt good.”

Chicago coach Joel Quenneville thought Crawford (8-0-3) looked just fine in his return, too.

“He was quick,” Quenneville said. “(He was) big, especially on the side-to-side plays on the power play. He tracked the puck well, looked like he wasn’t off for any time at all.

“He had a couple extras days there, got ready. A great response.”

Crawford had been sidelined after he sustained an upper-body injury in a 3-2 shootout loss to Anaheim on Feb. 12. Ray Emery started and won four games in his absence.

Crawford had returned to the lineup as Emery’s backup on Friday when the Blackhawks set the NHL record with at least one point in the first 17 games of a season with a 2-1 win over San Jose. That topped the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, who started 12-0-4.

Shaw provided all the offense in the second period on Sunday for the Blackhawks, who have earned 33 of 36 possible points.

The Blackhawks also improved to 9-0-3 in games decided by one goal.

“We’re playing the score” Quenneville said. “We’re playing to win. Being on the right side of pucks in a game like today was a good test for us.

“They work hard. It’s the type of game you make sure you don’t try to manufacture things. We took too many penalties, but got better as the game went on.”

Chicago has won nine straight against Columbus, dating to Feb. 18, 2011.

The 18-game point streak is also a team record for the Blackhawks, who have only lost in shootouts this season.

The Blue Jackets (5-12-2), who have an NHL-low 12 points, went 0 for 5 on the power play. Mason kept the game close as he started for the first time in over a week.

He had been on the bench the past three games while Sergei Bobrovsky started.

“I felt good,” Mason said. “I had about a week’s worth of practice to get ready for this game.

“We knew it was going to be a big one with them being the only undefeated team in the NHL. We would have liked to have come in and ended that streak, but that didn’t happen.”

The Blackhawks dominated territorially and in puck possession through the first two periods, but only managed to get one shot past the Blue Jackets goalie.

Both teams had a handful of scoring chances in the first period. Mason made a point-blank pad save on Marian Hossa with 8:30 left, and Crawford stopped Derick Brassard from the slot two minutes later.

Mason denied Hossa on a breakaway 5:30 into the second after Hossa stole the puck from James Wisniewski at the Columbus blue line.

The Blue Jackets failed to convert several close-in attempts during a power-play late in the second, including when Vinny Prospal’s shot hit the crossbar to cap a breakaway.

Shaw finally broke through with 1:27 left in the second from the low edge of the left circle. He took Bryan Bickell’s backhanded feed from the back boards and ripped a high one-timed shot that beat Mason high on the stick side.

“He saw me coming,” Shaw said. “But I wasn’t sure, so I gave him a holler and he put it in a perfect area.”

Mason made a point-blank pad save on Patrick Kane midway through the third period after Kane made a spectacular spin move and cut across the crease alone.

Game notes

The Ducks went on to win the Stanley Cup in 2007. … Blackhawks C Dave Bolland missed the game because of an undisclosed upper-body injury. … Columbus went 1-5 on its six-game road trip. …The Blue Jackets placed D Jack Johnson (upper-body), on the injured list on Sunday. C Brandon Dubinsky (lower body) and C Artem Anisimov (upper body) were also out.

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Given the way he’s playing, the backup is making a strong case for even more playing time.

Fasth stopped 31 shots for his first NHL shutout, and Francois Beauchemin scored in his 500th career game, lifting the surging Anaheim Ducks to a 3-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night.

In just a short time — four starts, to be exact — Fasth has earned the trust of his teammates and his coach.

“He’s giving me confidence that I never knew I’d have in him when he came over,” said Anaheim coach Bruce Boudreau, whose team won its fourth straight game. “It’s a great, pleasant surprise that Viktor has come over and played so well.”

Fasth, 30, certainly has been quite a find for the Ducks since he signed as a free agent during the offseason. According to the Ducks, Fasth is the first goaltender in NHL history over the age of 30 to win his first four games.

Fasth stymied the struggling Avalanche with one sprawling save after another to help Anaheim start a six-game road swing on a good note.

“Vik’s really on the puck, making it easy on us,” Beauchemin said. “If it wasn’t for him, there was no way we would’ve won that game.”

The Avalanche players were in a sour mood after the game, as they were shut out for a third time this season. That especially didn’t sit too well with Matt Duchene.

“We’ve got to find a way to score, bottom line,” Duchene said. “We’ve been shut out three times in 10 games; it’s unacceptable. It’s almost 50 percent of the games we’re getting shut out. It’s a joke.”

No one is laughing about Fasth’s fast start. In his first four NHL appearances, he’s stopped 101 of 105 shots. But the ever-humble Fasth shrugged off his recent play, even his first shutout.

“It’s nothing you go and think about. You just try to do your best and help the team out as much as you can,” Fasth said. “I’m really glad I had (the shutout). It’s a little bonus. Most important thing is we got the win and started off this road trip really good.”

The competition between Fasth and starter Jonas Hiller is heating up. Not that Boudreau views it quite that way.

“Hilly will be playing very soon,” Boudreau said. “He will be doing the same thing, I hope.”

Fasth’s best save against Colorado was when Milan Hejduk skated in late in the final period and lined a shot that Fasth gobbled up with his chest.

That was the type of night it was for Fasth, who was the Swedish Elite League’s goaltender of the year the previous two seasons.

“Tonight, he stole us a victory,” Boudreau said.

Sheldon Souray and Saku Koivu each added a goal and an assist for the Ducks.

Kyle Palmieri nearly added a goal early in the third period on a 2-on-1 breakaway, but Semyon Varlamov slid over, stuck out of his glove and trapped the puck against the post. The referees took a quick look on replay before upholding the ruling of no goal.

Beauchemin all but wrapped up this game with a goal in the second period that gave the Ducks a commanding 3-0 lead. The play was set up by Koivu, who took a bone-jarring hit along the boards to send the puck into the offensive zone, where Daniel Winnik corralled the puck and sent it over to Beauchemin for his second goal of the season.

The Avalanche had David Jones back in the lineup after he missed the previous two games with a knee injury. But it didn’t ignite the offense as Colorado lost for a second straight time at home.

Boudreau had a chance to catch up with Varlamov, his former goalie, in a Pepsi Center hallway at the morning skate. The two were together while with Washington.

Asked the biggest difference between Varlamov then and now, Boudreau said, “He’s way more consistent. From when I watch, there are no soft goals.”

And then Varlamov proceeded to surrender two soft ones in the first period. He let a liner from Souray near the blue line slip between his pads.

Later, Varlamov failed to bat away a pass through the goal crease, allowing Koivu to tap it in with the Ducks on a 5-on-3 advantage. It was the first goal the Avs allowed in 21 power-play chances at Pepsi Center this season.

“If you look at the overall game, they didn’t outplay us,” Colorado coach Joe Sacco said. “At the end it got a little helter-skelter. We had some chance, we didn’t score. We’ve got to stick with it and keep grinding it out.”

Game notes

Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog (head and leg) missed a sixth straight game. … The injury-riddled Avalanche claimed F Aaron Palushaj off waivers from Montreal. He didn’t play Wednesday. … Ducks D Toni Lydman (flu) was a scratch. The team recalled D Jordan Hendry from Norfolk.

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Brodeur made 24 saves for his 120th NHL shutout, Ilya Kovalchuk scored on a short-handed penalty shot, and the Devils won their home opener in front of an enthusiastic sellout crowd with a 3-0 victory over the winless Flyers on Tuesday night.

It was the first meeting between the long-time divisional rivals since New Jersey eliminated Philadelphia in five games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Devils again had the Flyers’ number and beat them for a fifth straight time.

Travis Zajac and David Clarkson scored first-period goals to provide all the offense Brodeur would need en route to his 10th shutout of the Flyers.

“It was a long time coming,” Brodeur said. “I thought we had a great run in the playoffs, and our fans were great. With the lockout, we didn’t know how these fans would respond. They showed tremendous support.

“I thought we played pretty good and gave them some excitement. Hockey is back in New Jersey, I guess.”

The Flyers dropped to 0-3, matching their worst start since they also lost their first three games in the lockout-shortened 1995 season.

Philadelphia rebounded that year to win the Atlantic Division, and the Devils won their first Stanley Cup championship that season with Brodeur in goal.

“It’s not time to panic, but we have to tighten the screws,” Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov said. “After the bad start we can’t keep losing games anymore because you will never get out from the bottom of the standings because you don’t have enough games.

“That’s why we have to be with the attitude that’s it’s the playoffs.”

The 40-year-old Brodeur was in postseason form, especially in the first period when he stopped all nine Flyers shots.

“It shows how good an athlete he is,” Clarkson said of Brodeur. “Marty is one of the best athletes I’ve played with. It’s impressive to see him at that age doing what he’s doing and having fun doing it. He makes us a better team every night.”

The Devils had only three shots in the first period, but Zajac and Clarkson scored. That duo also had goals in the Devils’ 2-1 season-opening win over the Islanders on Saturday.

“They only had three shots so I don’t think we played bad hockey,” Flyers forward Max Talbot said. “The only thing we can do is keep working hard. It would be easy to panic. It’s about work ethic. Yes, it’s three games and we don’t have a point but we need to keep working and battling.”

Kovalchuk, who played in Russia during the lockout and was a little late in getting back for training camp, brought the crowd of 17,650 to its feet on the Devils’ fourth shot of the game early in the second period. He was hooked by defenseman Kimmo Timonen on a semi-breakaway and was awarded a penalty shot at 2:44.

The 29-year-old Kovalchuk wasted no time once the puck was put down at center ice. He skated quickly at Bryzgalov and beat him with a backhander to the upper part of the net for his first goal of the season.

“It’s a 50-50 chance and I was fortunate to score,” Kovalchuk said. “He’s a big goalie and I knew he would go down if I faked him. I beat him this time, but it’s a long season.”

The only question after that was whether Brodeur would add to his career-leading shutout total. Wayne Simmonds had the best scoring chance with a shot from the right circle that had Brodeur out of position. However, the 19-year veteran slid across the crease and made a pad save.

It must have frustrated Simmonds because he bumped Brodeur after another glove save later in the period, sparking a little melee. Clarkson and Simmonds traded punches in a third-period scuffle.

“I didn’t hit him too hard,” Simmonds said. “I just gave him a little push that I kind of thought he over exaggerated, and it worked. He is one of the best goalies who ever played. He can do whatever he wants in this league.”

The Flyers held New Jersey without a shot for a 12:25 span in the first period but still trailed 2-0.

Zajac gave the Devils the lead after only 67 seconds. The center who signed a $46 million contract last week, stopped a point shot by Bryce Salvador right at Bryzgalov’s doorstep and tucked the puck around the goalie into an open net.

Clarkson extended the lead to 2-0 with 24.9 seconds left in the opening period with a fluky power-play goal. He centered the puck from the side of the net, and it hit off the stake of Flyers forward Ruslan Fedotenko and caromed into the net.

Brodeur had three excellent saves in the opening 20 minutes. He made a skate save on a point shot by defenseman Andrej Meszaros, stopped Fedotenko on a rebound, and made a one-on-one stop against Scott Hartnell with the Flyers coming at him in waves.

Game notes

Brodeur also has 10 shutouts against the Islanders. … Kovalchuk’s goal was the Devils’ first short-handed, penalty-shot score since Zach Parise had one on Oct. 21, 2011 vs. San Jose. … Kovalchuk has scored on three of four penalty shots in his career. … New Jersey is 17-8-5 in home openers. … Tye McGinn, recalled from Adirondack of the AHL on Monday, made his NHL debut for the Flyers. He replaced Zac Rinaldo who sustained a cut to his right thigh against Buffalo on Sunday. … Philadelphia RW Danny Briere missed his third straight game. He broke his left wrist playing overseas during the lockout. … Former Islanders D Bruno Gervais, who signed as a free agent during the offseason, made his Flyers debut.

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