Embarking on the back half of a home-and-home set, Lindy Ruff's Dallas Stars (15-12-5) will play host to Patrick Roy's Colorado Avalanche (22-9-1) tonight at the American Airlines Center. Game time is 7:30 p.m. CST. The match will be televised locally on Fox Sports Southwest.
Tonight's game is the fourth meeting of the season between the teams. The Avalanche have won all three games to date; two in regulation and one in overtime.
On Oct. 15, the visiting Stars dropped a 3-2 regulation decision to the then-unbeaten Avs. Rich Peverley got Dallas off to a quick start but goals by Matt Duchene and Jan Hejda -- the latter being tallied with seven seconds left in the opening period -- sent Colorado to the first intermission with a 2-1 lead. Cody Eakin tied the game with a power play goal midway through regulation but Duchene answered back a few minutes later with his second tally of the game. The Stars, who generated 41 shots for the game, staged a 17-shot assault in the third period but could not find an equalizer against Semyon Varlamov.
Two weeks later, on Nov. 1, the Avs and Stars skated to a 2-2 tie after 60 minutes before Colorado prevailed in overtime. In this match, Dallas trailed 2-0 after two periods on goals by Paul Stastny and Gabriel Landeskog. Alex Goligoski shaved the deficit in half early in the third period before Tyler Seguin knotted the game with 3:29 left in regulation. In the extra frame, Stastny notched his second goal of the match to win the game.
Last night in Denver, Stastny struck for two more goals and also assisted on Eric Johnson's tally with three seconds left on the second period clock plus a third-period tally by Tyson Barrie. The Johnson goal capped off a four-goal outburst for Colorado in the second period, which turned a game that had been tied at the first intermission into a rout. Stastny has scored 10 goals for the season; four of which have come against the Stars.
Tyler Seguin scored one of Dallas' two goals and assisted on the other (defenseman Kevin Connauton's first career NHL goal). Over the last two games, Seguin has three goals and three assists. Defenseman Sergei Gonchar has five assists in the last two games.
Veteran defensemen Stephane Robidas (fractured right leg) and Trevor Daley (high ankle sprain) remain out of the lineup for Dallas. The Stars blueline has really struggled in their absence in just about every area, but especially in poise under pressure, puck management in general and in coverage assignments.
Colorado has been a slightly above .500 team since cooling down from their 12-1-0 start to the season. Since that time, the Avalanche have gone 10-8-1.
Special teams have been a real sore spot for both the Avalanche and Stars of late. Colorado is in an 0-for-31 skid on the power play over the last 11 games, including 0-for-5 last night. Meanwhile, the Avs had yielded 13 opposition power play goals in the 14 games leading into last night. After a two-goal outburst in Winnipeg, the Stars returned last night to experiencing nothing but frustration on the man advantage. Dallas went 0-for-5.
Jean-Sabastien Giguere will get the call in net for Colorado. Dan Ellis is likely to start for Dallas. Last night, Kari Lehtonen went the distance, giving up six goals on 48 shots. Thus far in the month of December, Lehtonen is 2-3-2 with a 3.80 goals against average and .896 save percentage.
Although Lehtonen has not had his A-game of late, much of the blame for the spate of goals the Stars have allowed in the month of December (3-3-2) lays at the feet of Dallas' often-shoddy team defense. A quick breakdown of the breakdowns from last night:
* On Nathan MacKinnon's first period goal that opened the scoring, the Stars turned a puck over near the offensive blueline and had a 3-on-2 counterattack. Puck carrier Matt Duchene turned into a mini 2-on-1 against Sergei Gonchar. Duchene dished to MacKinnon on the left wing and plowed ahead toward the net, taking Gonchar with him. From the left circle, MacKinnon sniped a shot high to the long side over Lehtonen.
* On Stastny's goal in the second period that put the Avalanche ahead, 2-1, Dallas rookie defenseman Jamie Oleksiak (who has had issues with taking too long to read and react to NHL forecheckers) got bumped off a puck behind the net. Dallas never got any coverage set between chasing aimlessly after the puck and defenders on the other side not picking up open men. Oleksiak got victimized a second time on the shift as Stastny slipped in behind him to receive a pass from Max Talbot and steer it home from the doorstep. Lehtonen had no chance whatsoever once the pass got across.
* When Andre Benoit made it a 3-1 game at 13:42 of the second period, four different Stars players had opportunities to play the puck to safety. Brenden Dillon was expecting hybrid icing to be invoked as he skated back for a puck that Colorado chipped in deep from its own of the ice. While Dillon easily got to the right faceoff dot first, he neglected to realize that the puck was about to die in the snow short of the icing line. Dillon's momentary let up allowed Duchene to close the gap and pressure the defenseman on what otherwise would have been an easy clear. As the puck came out front, three different Stars got bunched up close together around the slot and watched the disc go right on past them. Finally, Benoit skated in and ripped a shot past Lehtonen.
* Stastny's second goal of the period at 16:32 started with Dillon losing a 1-on-2 battle with the eventual goal scorer and Gabriel Landeskog behind his own net. The Seguin line provided saggy coverage as the Avs' Landeskog rotated up high with the puck and fed it over to P.A. Parenteau on the near side boards. Stastny parked himself directly in front of Lehtonen as Landeskog moved toward center point and took a return pass from Parenteau. Stastny, who was being fronted near the net by Dillon, tipped home Landeskog's shot.
* When Johnson made it 5-1 in the waning seconds of the second period, the Seguin line once again had a Keystone Kops sequence. It started with another odd-man rush for Colorado and Lehtonen making a stop on Johnson as he skated off the bench to pinch up to the deep slot and rip a shot on net. Colorado maintained control, as Stastny worked the puck back to Johnson again. Jamie Benn and Dillon both appeared to attempt to block Johnson's second shot but succeeded only in screening Lehtonen.
* Barrie closed out the scoring for the game with a late third-period tally. The Stars had just killed off a penalty but were still pinned deep in their own end of the ice. Everyone on the Dallas side ended up being stationary as Barrie skated in to receive the puck and wrist a shot from up high that found its way into the net.
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