Defense, penalty killing woes doom Avalanche against Stars

The Colorado Avalanche needed to win Sunday night to gain on the Dallas Stars in the standings.

The Stars, who had lost all three games to the Avalanche this season, had plenty of motivation of their own. Dallas scored three times on the power play in the second period and expanded its lead in the Central Division to five points with a 7-4 victory at Ball Arena.

Dallas played like the more desperate team. The Mikko Rantanen-less Avalanche looked like a team with some issues to sort out before the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin.

“The defending breakdowns that we had … we did some dumb stuff today,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “And they all led to really good scoring chances against.”

This loss makes it likely the Avs will start the postseason against the Winnipeg Jets, and now they need to ensure Game 1 is at Ball Arena and not in Southern Manitoba. The Jets could tie them at 102 points with a win Monday at Nashville. They are at Ball Arena on Saturday for what could be a huge contest.

The Stars played Saturday in Chicago, and were unable to fly to Denver after the game because of the high winds in the area. They flew here Sunday morning, but looked like the fresher team in the first two periods.

Part of that might have been the motivation to avoid a season sweep by the Avs and to inch closer to a division title. Part of it was also because Colorado had its worst stretch of the season statistically without the puck in the opening 40 minutes.

Dallas had 41 scoring chances, including 20 of the high-danger variety, in the first two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. The most the Avs had allowed in any full game before this was 44 scoring chances (Florida on Feb. 10) and 22 high-danger chances (Ottawa on Dec. 21).`

They were better in the third period, but still finished with new season highs in both categories (46 scoring chances, 23 high-danger)

“We just weren’t good enough defensively,” Bednar said. “I don’t love the way we’re checking right now, but I think it’s certainly curable.

“I felt like we were more competitive on the offensive side of things than we were on the defensive side of things. It can’t be that way.”

Alexandar Georgiev had a great start to the game when the Stars were all over the Avalanche, but the Colorado goalie also gave up four or more goals for the fourth time in his past five starts.

Sean Walker put the Avs on the board just 1:59 into the game with a harmless-looking shot from the right point. The Stars looked a step ahead for the first half of the opening period before the Avs caught up.

Then Dallas scored twice in the final three minutes, getting goals from Matt Duchene and Jamie Benn to grab the lead.

Nathan MacKinnon set up Artturi Lehkonen with a nifty pass through traffic on the power play 4:38 into the second, but things went sideways in a hurry for Colorado after that.

Benn drew a double-minor for high-sticking on Walker, and later in the period a slashing call on Cale Makar. The Stars got goals from Roope Hintz, Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment to open a 5-2 advantage.

Brandon Duhaime gave the Avs a chance with a goal in the final minute of the second period. He outmuscled Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist to put home the rebound of a MacKinnon point shot.