Stars Beat Avalanche
DALLAS — The Dallas Stars didn’t clinch the Central Division or the top spot in the Western Conference with a 4-2 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday at American Airlines Center, but they did take a step in that direction.
Colton Sceviour scored the eventual game-winning goal early in the second period and Kari Lehtonen stopped 17 of 19 shots for Dallas, who has won eight of its last 10 games.
“I thought we put together a real solid effort. I thought as a group everybody played well,” Stars coach Lindy Ruff said.
Sceviour scored with Dallas on the power play 3:43 into the second by outmaneuvering Avalanche goaltender Calvin Pickard, who stopped 27 of 30 shots, for his 11th of the season. Sceviour received a pass from Patrick Sharp to the left of the visiting goal and displayed some deft stickhandling before scoring to put Dallas ahead 2-0.
“I would have liked to have that second goal [back],” Pickard said. “He (Sceviour) made a pretty good move going to the other side on a quick little jam play.”
Jason Dickinson, Jordie Benn and Antoine Roussel also scored for
Dallas (49-23-9). Radek Faksa and Ales Hemsky had two assists each for the Stars.
Francois Beauchemin and Shawn Matthias scored for Colorado (39-38-4), which was eliminated from playoff contention on Tuesday in Nashville. John Mitchell added two assists.
“I expect more from our guys. When you’re out of the playoffs, emotions are not the same,” Avalanche coach Patrick Roy said. “We had some moments in the third period. It clearly was not enough. I think we had three turnovers on that first goal and then we had a bad penalty. It’s been the story of our season.”
Pickard robbed Dallas defenseman John Klingberg at the far post with a glove save 4:29 into the game. Klingberg was attempting to score off a one-timer from the right circle, but Pickard dashed over to deny Klingberg.
Following a short video review, the call on the ice of no-goal stood since the puck did not cross the goal line.
Dallas broke the deadlock with 4:47 remaining before the first intermission when Dickinson scored his first career goal in his NHL debut. Valeri Nichushkin capitalized on some confusion behind the Colorado net between Pickard and Beauchemin.
Nichuskin flipped the puck toward the net and Dickinson scored on a backhand that deflected in off Tyson Barrie’s stick.
“I just thought of coming in here and playing my game, keeping it simple and just trying to contribute as best I can,” Dickinson said. “Fortunately enough, it ended up as a goal.”
The Stars led 1-0 after one period and outshot Colorado 15-4.
Colorado’s Erik Johnson earned a five-minute major and a game misconduct for shoving Johnny Oduya into the boards behind the Colorado net 3:07 into the second period.
Dallas doubled its lead just 36 seconds later on Sceviour’s power-play goal. The Stars then gained a two-man advantage after Mikhail Grigorenko was called for hooking Klingberg.
Jordie Benn’s third goal of the season at 8:05 of the second during the 5-on-3 power play put Dallas up 3-0. Benn blistered a slap shot past Pickard, beating him top shelf, from the left point.
Dallas led 3-0 after two periods and had outshot Colorado 26-7. The Stars outshot the Avalanche 31-19 in the game.
Roussel added an empty-net goal with 3:06 remaining, his 13th of the season, 30 seconds after Pickard had headed to the bench.
Matthias scored with 59.9 seconds remaining by deflecting a Jarome Iginla wrist shot from the right circle in to beat Lehtonen far post.
“I think that they came out real strong, came out hard and were throwing a lot of pucks at the net, and winning a lot more battles than we were. In the third it definitely got better, but not good enough,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.
