Stars defeat Avalanche to extend winning streak
DENVER -- Tyler Seguin and Brent Ritchie scored two goals each, Devin Shore had a goal and an assist, and the streaking Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 7-2 on Sunday night.
Jason Spezza and Greg Pateryn also scored, Alexander Radulov and John Klingberg had two assists each, and Kari Lehtonen made 25 saves for Dallas. The Stars won their fifth in a row and their seven in the past eight.
Mikko Rantanen and Blake Comeau had goals, and Semyon Varlamov stopped 16 of 18 shots in relief of Jonathan Bernier for the Avalanche.
Colorado is 1-3-1 since shutting out Dallas on Nov. 22 and fell to 1-3-0 on its five-game homestand.
The Stars, leading 2-1 after Rantanen scored his eighth goal 39 seconds into the second period, struck twice in 1:04 to go up by three.
Spezza made it 3-1 with a backhander through Bernier's pads at 6:48, and Pateryn chased Bernier with a slap shot from the point at 7:52.
Bernier allowed four goals on nine shots before being replaced by Varlamov.
The Stars (16-10-1) had a goal by Radek Faska overturned on a coach's challenge at 11:34 of the second. The Avalanche contended that Dallas center Tyler Pitlick interfered with Varlamov, and the challenge was successful after a review.
Colorado (12-11-2) got within 4-2 when Comeau scored his second on a delayed penalty just over a minute later, but Ritchie's goal on another Avalanche turnover at 4:02 of the third made it a three-goal game again.
Shore scored into an empty net at 17:24 of the third, and Ritchie got his second of the night 46 seconds later.
Seguin, who has eight hat tricks in his career, gave the Stars a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals in the first period. He got the first one when he intercepted Matt Nieto's pass at the Dallas blue line, skated into the Colorado zone and beat Bernier with a backhander at 14:44.
He got his second of the night and 14th of the season at 19:11 of the first.
NOTES: Colorado LW Gabriel Landeskog served the third of his four-game suspension for his crosscheck of Calgary's Matthew Tkachuk on Nov. 25. ... Dallas LW Antoine Roussel missed his second straight game with the flu. The Stars also placed C Martin Hanzal (hamstring) on injured reserve and recalled C Jason Dickinson from Texas of the AHL. ... Avalanche D Erik Johnson played in his 600th NHL game on Sunday and 397th with Colorado. He played his first 203 games with St. Louis. ... Avalanche C Nathan MacKinnon has seven goals and 17 assists since Oct. 27.