Pavelski nets two, reaches 400 career goals as Stars beat Avalanche

Joe Pavelski scored twice and reached the 400-goal career milestone as the Dallas Stars defeated the Colorado Avalanche 3-1.

DALLAS -- Joe Pavelski scored twice in 20 seconds in the opening 1:31 to reach 400 career goals, and two goaltenders combined to shut down the NHL's highest-scoring team Friday night, as the Dallas Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-1.

Denis Gurianov added a power-play goal for Dallas, which has won its last five home games and five of six overall.

Cale Makar scored at 16:39 of the third period with the extra skater on the ice for Colorado, which had its six-game winning streak halted. Makar has goals in a franchise-record five straight games for a defenseman.

Jake Oettinger made 33 saves and improved his record to 4-0-0 including Dallas' last three games. Oettinger was replaced by veteran Braden Holtby during the last 7:22 of the second period after being struck in the head by Nicolas Aube-Kubel.

Pavelski is the 10th American-born NHL player to score at least 400 goals. The leader is Mike Modano, who scored all but four of his with 561 goals with the Minnesota-Dallas franchise.

``I guess it's an old-guy stat,'' the 37-year-old Pavelski said.

``We bent there a little bit in the third period, but we didn't break,'' Stars coach Rick Bowness said. ``They're probably the fastest team in the league, so we knew they were going to make a big push at it.''

Oettinger returned for the third period after adhering to the NHL protocol regarding hits to the head - passing a base-line concussion test. And what a period it was with the Avalanche outshooting Dallas 20-1 and finally scoring.

``You never want to come out of a game, but you've got to do what you've got to do,'' Oettinger said. ``I'm just happy we have something like that in place.''

Holtby, who leads Stars goalies with eight starts had missed the previous five games with a lower body injury. He finished with four saves.

The Avalanche entered leading the league by averaging 4.06 goals per game. Darcy Kuemper stopped 19 shots and had his personal five-game winning streak -- the longest active run in the NHL -- stopped.

``We weren't ready to start the game on time,'' said Avs coach Jared Bednar, who on Wednesday became Colorado's leader in career coaching wins with 194. ``They came out with a lot of jump, were more competitive early. We were lucky it was only two goals.''

Each team will complete a back-to-back on Saturday night.

Pavelski first scored at 1:12 when he was left alone at the far post to Kuemper's right and converted a pass by Jason Robertson from the opposite circle. At 1:31, Pavelski dipped his right knee as he skated on net, controlled a pass from Roope Hintz on his backhand, shifted the puck to his forehand and scored from between the circles.

Gurianov collected a rebound in the low slot off a shot by Miro Heiskanen and sent a wrister to Kuemper's right for his second goal in two games.

Oettinger left at 12:38 of the second period when Aube-Kubel's right elbow caught him in the head as Aube-Kubel charged the net along the goal line.

Oettinger, 22, went into the game leading the NHL with a 1.29 goals-against average in four games since being called up from Texas of the American Hockey League on Nov. 13.

MAKE IT FIVE FOR MAKAR

In setting the franchise record for a defenseman with goals in five consecutive games, Makar was somewhat held in check. He scored two goals in two of the previous three games and has seven in five games.

``It would feel a lot sweeter if we got the win tonight,'' he said of the milestone.

NOTES

Heiskanen, a defenseman, leads Dallas with 15 points. Hintz has 10 points in his last 10 games after being limited to one assist in his first 10 games. The Stars have scored power-play goals in four straight games and 10 of the last 11. The Avs came in having scored 10 power-play goals in six games, but went 0 for 3 with the man-advantage with two total shots on goal. Colorado's Nazem Kadri, fourth in the NHL with 25 points going into play, had a 10-game points streak snapped.

UP NEXT

Avalanche: Host Nashville on Saturday night.

Stars: At Arizona on Saturday night.

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