Stars score 7, cruise past Avalanche for 3rd straight win

DALLAS -- Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, and the Dallas Stars defeated the Colorado Avalanche 7-3 at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and Roope Hintz had two assists for the Stars (34-16-13), who won their third straight game and lead the Central Division by three points over the Minnesota Wild. Jake Oettinger made 32 saves.
"We're not planning any parades," Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. "It was a really good effort, and now we have to keep building on it. I don't want to undersell the importance of the win because it's an important win, but that doesn't mean all of a sudden we're the best team in the league because we beat the Stanley Cup shampions 7-3 tonight. We've got a lot of work left to do. We know [Colorado] is better than how they played, and we have to keep building on this for the next 20 games until the playoffs start."
Samuel Girard had a goal and two assists, and Alex Newhook had two assists for the Avalanche (34-21-5), who have lost two straight after a six-game winning streak and are fourth in the Central, one point behind the Winnipeg Jets. Alexandar Georgiev made 14 saves on 19 shots before being replaced by Keith Kinkaid (eight saves) in the second period. It was Kinkaid's Colorado debut.
"I'm certainly not putting that on Georgiev," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "I just thought, we're playing again tomorrow (against the Seattle Kraken at home), and I would like him to play again. … I wasn't going to let him stay in the net if the game was getting out of reach. I just felt like we can give him a little bit of rest the rest of the way, and plus it gives us an opportunity to look at Keith now and figure out what we're going to do when we need a start from somebody."
Robertson gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 3:33 of the first period during a delayed penalty. He scored from the left face-off circle off a crossing pass by Hintz.

Miro Heiskanen made it 2-0 at 10:09 from the point with Stars forward Jamie Benn screening Georgiev.
"I think they came out hard and were physical and came after our [defensemen]," Bednar said. "I didn't think we did a very good job of handling their forecheck at the start of the game. Got slightly better as the game went on, but their pressure, and their forecheck pressure, you look at two of the first three goals we kind of turned pucks over and they came back and capitalized on those chances."
Girard cut it to 2-1 at 16:03 when his slap shot deflected off the stick of Dallas forward Tyler Seguin.
Pavelski gave Dallas a 3-1 lead at 17:42 with his first goal in 19 games, scoring at the left post off a backdoor feed from Robertson on the rush. His last goal was Jan. 14.
"We knew it was coming, it felt like it was coming for a week or two now," Pavelski said of ending his goal drought. "When you're going good, you never think you'll find yourself in one of those. Hasn't been the first one, probably not the last, so you try to focus on the little things and keep doing those things well, making the plays, finding yourself around the net. It's good to see them go in."
Mason Marchment extended it to 4-1 at 5:25 of the second from the top of the slot, ending a 32-game goal drought with his first since Dec. 13.

"It's a good feeling, for sure," Marchment said of scoring. "That was good. We've been grinding a lot this season and we've been through a lot together, so it's good and we got one tonight."
Radek Faksa pushed the lead to 5-1 at 11:39 when he deflected a point shot from Stars defenseman Esa Lindell in front, chasing Georgiev.
Wyatt Johnston made it 6-1 at 4:15 of the third period when he stole the puck off of the stick of Avalanche forward Denis Malgin and slipped it under Kinkaid's left pad.
"It's tough when you want to say a team outplayed you," Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. "We didn't play to our strengths, and that stuff happens. They were beating us in basically all battles of the game, the physicality aspect took a toll on us for sure tonight. Obviously, you take those checks and mark them down and hopefully meet these guys again at some point. Overall, we just have to be better as a whole group."
Andrew Cogliano cut it to 6-2 at 11:49 on a rebound at the edge of the crease, and Evan Rodrigues pulled Colorado within 6-3 on the power play at 16:19.
Robertson scored an empty-net goal at 16:53 for the 7-3 final.
NOTES:Makar had one shot on goal and two blocked shots in 22:27 of ice time after missing five games because of a concussion. … Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen had a six-game goal streak end, and Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon had a five-game goal streak end. … Forward Max Domi had two shots on goal and played 16:12 in his Stars debut after being traded from the Chicago Blackhawks on Thursday. … Kinkaid was traded to Dallas from the Boston Bruins on Feb. 25. It was his second NHL game this season; he made 30 saves on 31 shots for Boston in a 3-1 win at the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 12.