Bernier, Avalanche shut out Stars
DENVER -- Nail Yakupov scored with fractions of a second remaining in the second period thanks to one of Nathan MacKinnon's three assists and Jonathan Bernier had a 28-save shutout as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 on Wednesday night.
MacKinnon won a faceoff in the Stars' zone with 1.9 seconds left in the period and Yakupov rifled a shot from between the circles past Dallas goalie Ben Bishop to put Colorado up 2-0. Video review showed the puck crossing the goal line with .2 seconds left on the clock.
Gabriel Landeskog and Erik Johnson also scored for the Avalanche, who improved to 7-1-1 at home this season. MacKinnon's three helpers give him 20 points -- six goals and 14 assists -- in his last 10 games. Mikko Rantanen added two assists for Colorado.
Bishop stopped 29 shots for the Stars, who lost a night after they beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1. They are 1-5 on games played on consecutive nights and 3-8-1 on the road this season.
Dallas was shutout for the first time this season.
The Avalanche opened the scoring 3:02 into the second on Johnson's second goal of the year. MacKinnon weaved through the defense as he raced down the ice and left it for Johnson, who slid a shot under Bishop's pads to make it 1-0.
After Yakupov beat the clock in the second, Landeskog added Colorado's third goal of the night under Bishop's armpit. The Avs have scored three or more goals in every home game this year.
In the opening period, Colorado outshot Dallas 14-9 but had to dodge an early mistake to keep things scoreless. On a power play, the Stars cleared the puck and Bernier misplayed it off the back boards. Antoine Roussel took a whack as the puck sliced into the crease but Bernier reached his stick far enough to deflect the puck into the crossbar.
Not long after that, Bishop gloved an expert tip-in chance by Blake Comeau.
NOTES: Dallas recalled LW Curtis McKenzie from the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League and reassigned D Julius Honka. ... The Avalanche recalled G Andrew Hammond from AHL San Antonio to back up G Jonathan Bernier, who was in net for a second consecutive game for ill-starter Semyon Varlamov. Hammond was acquired from Ottawa earlier in the month as part of the trade that sent C Matt Duchene to the Senators. ... RW Sven Andrighetto was a healthy scratch for Colorado, while LW Gabriel Bourque returned to the lineup after he was a healthy scratch the previous three games. D Andrei Mironov was also a scratch. ... The Stars scratched D March Methot (knee), C Martin Hanzal (hand) and Kari Lehtonen (personal reasons).