The Colorado Avalanche used a balanced attack and a workmanlike effort to defeat the Dallas Stars 4-1 at Pepsi Center on Saturday and end a four-game losing streak. Jarome Iginla, Alex Tanguay, Gabriel Landeskog and Dennis Everberg scored for the Avalanche (23-22-11), who have won all four games against the Stars this season. The Stars (26-22-8) played without four of their regular forwards, including top-line center Tyler Seguin, who sustained a knee injury Friday against the Florida Panthers. He is expected to miss 3-6 weeks.
Goalie Jhonas Enroth, who was acquired Thursday from the Buffalo Sabres, made 26 saves in his Stars debut. Iginla gave the Avalanche a 3-0 lead at 3:20 of the third period. Brad Stuart's shot hit the inside of Iginla's knee and sailed past Enroth. Stuart collided with teammate Nick Holden just before the puck entered the net. The defenseman hit the ice and was down for about a minute, but he was able to return. The goal was Iginla's 18th of the season and the 578th of his NHL career, moving him past Mark Recchi into sole possession of 19th place on the all-time list. The Stars cut the deficit to 3-1 at 9:58 when Jason Spezza carried the puck from the corner into the left circle and beat goalie Semyon Varlamov to the short side. Each team had a player in the penalty box, but Ruff pulled Enroth to give his team a 5-on-4 skating advantage shortly before Spezza scored. But the Stars didn't score again, and Everberg knocked a loose puck behind Enroth with 23.1 seconds remaining. The Avalanche went ahead 2-0 at 5:28 of the second period on Tanguay's goal. Nate Guenin took a shot from the left point and Enroth made the save, but Everberg was in front and nudged the puck with his stick to Tanguay, who put it into a half-empty net. Spezza thought he scored at 17:02, which would have cut the Avalanche lead to 2-1, but video replay confirmed that he used his glove to bat the puck off Stuart into the net. Landeskog opened the scoring at 11:28 of the first period when he tipped in a shot from Nathan MacKinnon, who was originally credited with the goal. Avalanche left wing Cody McLeod was assessed a fighting major, a 10-minute misconduct and a game misconduct at 6:22 of the third period following an altercation with Stars defenseman Jason Demers. Demers sustained a facial cut when McLeod checked him into the boards behind the Avalanche net and a scrum ensued. Another one took place soon after in front of the benches. Demers was given a roughing minor and a 10-minute misconduct. Cody McLeod, who fought with Curtis McKenzie in the first period and finished with a career-high 30 penalty minutes.
Stars Quotes
Lindy Ruff: "I thought [Enroth] played well. There was nothing that went through him. Couple of tough breaks. They had a little bit of puck luck when it came to pucks finding holes and hitting bodies. I had one like that years ago in Atlanta. I think I pulled him with 13 minutes left. I just felt to give us our best chance, give us a power-play look, that if I pulled him right then I was banking on we'd get set up on our 5-on-4 formation and look to score."Jason Spezza: "You just have to have possession of the puck after it hit my hand, so you hope you get the call, but I understand the ruling on it. I don't think we had as much jump as we've had over the last few weeks. I thought we were a little bit flat as a group. When we get behind on these back-to-backs, it's tough playing from behind when you're chasing the game the whole night. I don't think we had enough urgency in our game until the end."
Cody McLeod: "There was a scrum behind the net, I went back to the bench for a change after things cleared out of there. I was standing there and got hit in the back of the head. I don't know why they kicked me out of the game, but that was the call."
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