Stars edge closer to clinching by beating Avalanche
DALLAS (AP) -- Jason Dickinson scored in his first NHL game, and the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Thursday night to move closer to the Central Division and Western Conference titles.
With one game remaining for each team, the Stars and St. Louis Blues are tied with 107 points, but Dallas holds the tiebreaker. Dallas hosts Nashville and St. Louis hosts Washington, both on Saturday night.
Dickinson was recalled from Texas of the AHL earlier Thursday because of injuries to Stars forwards, including 30-goal scorers Tyler Seguin and Jason Spezza. The game was scoreless until Dickinson backhanded a shot past Calvin Pickard from short range at 15:13 of the first period.
Colton Sceviour and Jordie Benn scored on the power play in the second period, and Antoine Roussel added an empty-net goal with 3:06 remaining for the Stars.
Francois Beauchemin and Jarome Iginla scored for Colorado in the third period.
Dallas dominated play in the first two periods, outshooting the Avalanche 15-4 in the first and 11-3 in the second.
The Stars scored twice after Colorado's Erik Johnson received a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct at 3:07 of the second. Just 36 seconds later, Sceviour took a pass from Patrick Sharp at the left of the net, moved the puck to his forehand and put it past Pickard.
The teams were skating 5-on-3 when Benn sent a slap shot from the top of the left faceoff circle into the upper right corner of the net at 8:05.
Another cheer went up four minutes later when the video board showed Chicago leading St. Louis 1-0 in the second period. The Blues sent that game into overtime, where they won 2-1.
Beauchemin scored at 10:54 of the third period, 2 seconds after an Avalanche power play expired. Following Roussel's empty-netter, Iginla scored with a minute to play.
Pickard finished with 27 saves, while Kari Lehtonen made 17 for the Stars.
NOTES: In addition to Seguin (Achilles tendon injury) and Spezza (illness), the Stars were without forwards Patrick Eaves (mid-body injury), Mattias Janmark (upper body) and Brett Ritchie (lower body). Dallas did get back D Kris Russell, who had missed seven games because of a foot injury. ... Colorado coach Patrick Roy missed the morning skate because of food poisoning. ... Roussel tied his career high with his 29th point. ... Officially, the Avalanche were 0 for 4 on the power play, making them 2 for 26 in the last 11 games. The Stars have successfully killed 46 of 48 power plays over the last 16 games. ... Colorado's lowest shots total this season and the Stars' lowest total allowed were at Dallas on Jan. 23 in an improbable 3-1 victory for the Avalanche.
