Rookie Jason Dickinson scored a goal in his NHL debut, and the Dallas Stars moved within one victory of winning the Central Division by defeating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
Dallas (49-23-9) remained even in points with the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 overtime winners against the Chicago Blackhawks, for first place in the division. Each team plays its final game Saturday at home; Dallas hosts the Nashville Predators and the Blues play the Washington Capitals. However, the Stars own the tiebreaker because they have 47 regulation/overtime wins, three more than St. Louis. The Central Division winner will be the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. The Stars have won eight of their past 11 games.
Dickinson, recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League earlier in the day because center Jason Spezza was ill and couldn't play, gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 15:13 of the first period when he beat Calvin Pickard with a backhand shot that deflected off the stick of Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie.
Colton Sceviour and Jordie Benn had second-period power-play goals for Dallas.Antoine Roussel had an empty-net goal and Kari Lehtonen made 17 saves. Francois Beauchemin and Shawn Matthias scored third-period goals for Colorado (39-38-4), which was eliminated from playoff contention with a 4-3 loss at Nashville on Tuesday.
Dallas dominated the first period, outshooting Colorado 15-4 and taking the lead on a goal by Dickinson, the 29th player taken in the 2013 NHL Draft. The Stars scored twice after Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson was assessed a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for boarding Johnny Oduya 3:07 into the second period.
Sceviour made it 2-0 when scored his 11th of the season 36 seconds into the long power play. Colorado forward Mikhail Grigorenko went off for hooking at 7:03, giving the Stars a two-man advantage, and Benn's slap shot from the left point beat Pickard top shelf for a 3-0 lead.
Beauchemin beat Lehtonen at 9:06 of the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle through heavy traffic. But Roussel hit the empty net with 3:06 remaining, 30 seconds after Pickard left the ice for an extra attacker. Matthias scored with 59.9 seconds remaining.
Stars Quotes
Jason Dickinson: "I just thought of coming in here and playing my game, keeping it simple and just trying to contribute as best I can. Fortunately enough, it ended up as a goal."Jamie Benn: "A good team effort tonight. Dickinson got us going early, and it was good to see him get his first. It was a bit of a boring game at times but we took care of what we had to take care of."
Lindy Ruff: "I thought he played well for his first NHL game. A little bit fortunate, but I thought that line gave us some good opportunities. He scored, so for a first game I thought it was a good showing. I thought Colton played a real good game for us. He scored a real nice goal. He had the puck quite a bit. Down low he made some real nice plays."
Avs Quotes
Gabriel Landeskog: "You want to be playing for the big dance. When you're not, it definitely [stinks], but like I said before the game you have to be professional about it. This is our job and we got to come out and do a [heck] of a lot better than we did tonight." Patrick Roy: "I think Dallas played a solid game defensively. They're a tough team to play against. There's a reason why they're No. 1 in our division."
Calvin Pickard: "They got a couple power plays in a row there. I would have liked to have that second goal [back]. He [Sceviour] made a pretty good move going to the other side on a quick little jam play. When it's 2-0 and then they get the screen slap-shot goal and it's 3-0, it's a tough hole to climb out of. But give our guys some credit; they really battled hard in the third period, threw a lot at them and just came up a little bit short."
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