| Advertisement |
DALLAS -- Before Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche, the Dallas Stars had been unable to string together three consecutive wins this season. However, thanks to six combined from Tyler Seguin (two goals, assist) and Jamie Benn (three assists), that futility is history, as the Stars prevailed 4-2 before a sellout crowd at American Airlines Center.
Advertisement
"Well, I think we've played pretty sound hockey for a good period of time, (had) a couple of disappointing losses inside of that, but we're getting more and more guys on the scoreboard, our big guys are scoring," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "When they score, there's a good chance of winning."
Devin Shore and Jamie Oleksiak also scored for Dallas (16-14-7), who also got two assists from Jason Spezza.
Colorado (12-22-1) got goals from Matt Duchene and Mikhail Grigorenko. The Avalanche, who also got two assists from Tyson Barrie, are now 3-13-1 over their past 17 games.
"There's no moral victory here," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "We've got to find a way to play that way (like we did in the second period) for 60 minutes. We're capable of it, but a couple mistakes we made coming into our d-zone cost us the game."
The Avalanche trailed 3-1 after two periods, but made it a one-goal game when Grigorenko scored off a rebound 7:27 into the third period. Antti Niemi denied the initial shot from Barrie, but an opportunistic Grigorenko was waiting in the crease and knocked in the rebound with a backhand.
Kari Lehtonen stopped 13 of 14 shots for Dallas, but Lehtonen had to leave the ice 4:56 into the third period following a collision with Jarome Iginla in front of the net. Niemi replaced Lehtonen in goal and stopped four of the five shots he faced.
Lehtonen did return to the Dallas bench late in the game.
"Yeah, he's OK, just had to go through (concussion) protocol," Ruff said of Lehtonen. "He got back to the bench, and he's doing good."
Colorado had an extra attacker after Calvin Pickard, who stopped 30 of 33 shots, left the ice with 1:45 remaining. However, an empty-net goal by Seguin with 25.2 seconds remaining iced the win for Dallas.
Dallas took an early lead when Shore scored his sixth goal of the season on a tip-in 5:11 into the game. Shore was inside the Colorado crease when he tapped in a pass from Lauri Korpikoski to make it 1-0.
Patrick Eaves was credited with his 100th career assist on the tally.
The Stars doubled their lead at 11:26 of the first period when Seguin one-timed a slap shot into the left side of the net from the left circle.
"We're making strides, it's about playing all together," Seguin said. "(We) got over the hump of (getting) two wins in a row, got three (now), want to keep going."
Seguin received a cross-ice pass from Benn, and Pickard was a touch late getting back to the near post. Seguin slipped the puck in just ahead of Pickard for his 12th goal of the season.
"Winning's a lot of fun, so we're going to try and keep this going," Benn said.
Colorado answered with 4:12 remaining before the first intermission when Duchene scored his 13th goal of the season off his own rebound. Lehtonen denied the initial shot from Duchene, who collected the carom and scored for his 400th career point.
"I didn't really think about it much," Duchene said of his milestone. "It's obviously nice to get there and get that out of the way. It's something that maybe I'll enjoy later on in the year or after the season's over, but it's never really anytime to celebrate when you lose a game."
Dallas regained its two-goal advantage early in the second when Oleksiak beat Pickard top shelf to his short side from the right circle at 4:52. Oleksiak's flick deflected in off Pickard's left shoulder.
"I was just trying to look for a pass and decided to take my chance with the shot, and it worked out," Oleksiak said. "I think it was a great puck-moving shift by the boys. It's nice to get a goal like that."
One positive for the Avalanche, who continue to hold the worst record in the NHL, was the performance of their penalty kill, a unit which kept the potent Dallas power play off the scoreboard at 0-for-6.
"I thought PK was good tonight," Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "I think our power play created some momentum as well. Five-on-five defensively, I think we did a decent job of keeping them to the outside and obviously, the only really dangerous scoring chance they got was when we turned pucks over."
NOTES: The Avalanche scratched C Joe Colborne, D Cody Goloubef and G Semyon Varlamov (groin). Varlamov, who was unavailable for the sixth time in eight games, did not travel with the team to Dallas and continues to be evaluated. ... The Stars scratched D Stephen Johns and D Patrik Nemeth. ... Dallas coach Lindy Ruff made morning skate optional on Thursday. LW Antoine Roussel (upper body) skated but RW Patrick Sharp (concussion symptoms) did not; neither played Thursday night. Ruff said after that Roussel, out the past two games, is still a few days away. Ruff said Sharp, out 11 straight games, remains day-to-day but is feeling a lot better. ... Colorado C Matt Duchene is the second member of the 2009 NHL draft class to reach 400 points. The other is New York Islanders C John Tavares, who hit 400 points in 2014-15.
