Johnston, Stars defeat Avalanche, pad lead in Central Division

DENVER -- Wyatt Johnston had a goal and two assists, and the Dallas Stars padded their lead in the Central Division with a 7-4 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Sunday.

Dallas leads Colorado by five points with four games remaining.

Jamie Benn also had a goal and two assists, Tyler Seguin scored twice, and Matt Duchene had a goal and an assist for the Stars (49-20-9), who were coming off a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday but are 9-1-0 in their past 10 games. Thomas Harley had three assists, and Jake Oettinger made 34 saves.

“Five games left, basically the division title at stake. We're both still fighting for the conference, so it is a playoff game essentially,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “When you get in these games, special teams are critical. You have to win the special teams battle, especially if you're on the road, and we did that tonight, and that's hard to do against that team because they're excellent on their special teams.”

Brandon Duhaime had a goal and an assist, and Nathan MacKinnon had two assists for the Avalanche (48-24-6), who are 2-4-1 in their past seven games. Alexandar Georgiev made 30 saves.

“The defending breakdowns we had, we did some dumb stuff today, and then they all led to really good scoring chances against,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “It's a huge game, right? It's for us to stay in the division race and them to grab it and basically have it, you know what I mean? But that's a different animal than some of the teams we've been playing.

“Dallas is tied for second overall in the whole League and they're a wagon. They're deep. They'll come at you with four lines with offensive ability.”

Sean Walker gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 1:59 of the first period, scoring with a shot from the right point that Oettinger missed with his blocker.

Duchene tied it 1-1 at 17:11. He got a step on Colorado defenseman Josh Manson and deked Georgiev before shooting into an open net.

“We know what's at stake. Both teams are competing for a division and a conference, and we've been in that position with them going into the third period (with the lead) twice this year,” Duchene said. “They have a knack of coming back and scoring a lot of goals, so we didn't want that to happen tonight.”

Benn made it 2-1 at 19:17. Johnston broke his stick on a one-timer after skating in off the bench, but Esa Lindell got the puck and sent a slap pass to Benn for a redirection near the left post.

“He's been unbelievable as of late," Duchene said of Benn. "He was pretty snakebitten for probably two-thirds, three-quarters of the year, and I think he's got like eight or nine goals in his last eight or nine games. I mean, he's been unbelievable for us and just doing what we've all seen him do throughout his career.”

Artturi Lehkonen tied it 2-2 with a power-play goal at 4:38 of the second period, finishing a backdoor pass from MacKinnon five-hole at the right post.

Roope Hintz put the Stars back in front 3-2 with his own power-play goal at 11:25. He deflected in a centering pass from Joe Pavelski off a give-and-go.

Seguin scored another power-play goal with a one-timer from the right hash marks to make it 4-2 at 12:45.

Both goals came with Walker serving a double minor for high-sticking.

“I think both teams have had this game circled for a little bit. We're at that time of the year where you're just kind of watching the standings and knew the importance of tonight's game,” Seguin said. “If you asked us in training camp if we were in this position, I think we'd be ecstatic. So, we're trying to take advantage of the opportunity.”

Mason Marchment extended the lead to 5-2 with the Stars' third straight power-play goal at 17:10. He tapped in his own rebound after his initial redirection hit off the post.

Duhaime made it 5-3 at 19:15, winning a battle with Nils Lundkvist in front and burying the rebound of MacKinnon's shot with his backhand.

Jonathan Drouin cut it to 5-4 at 10:15 of the third period with a deflection of Devon Toews’ point shot.

“There's a lot of our game that I liked. I liked that we didn't go away. I liked that we kept fighting after giving up the three power-play goals,” Bednar said. “I think you're going to look at it 5-on-5, we did a lot a lot of really good things. Just the bottom line is we had to go earn everything we got, and there's too much there that I didn't feel like they had to earn, that we gave them.”

Johnston pushed it to 6-4 at 15:12 when he poked in a loose puck at the right side of the net, and Seguin scored into an empty net at 19:51 for the 7-4 final.

“We have to take it one game at a time right now. You know, [we] have to play smart, have to have good habits and good things will happen,” Georgiev said. “I feel maybe the other teams are getting a little bit [of] good luck as well, but [we] can play better, for sure. Everybody, and mostly me.”

NOTES: Benn has scored at least once in nine of his past 10 games (10 goals). ... Hintz's goal was his 30th, the third straight season he's reached the mark. ... Oettinger extended his winning streak to seven games. He’s the only goaltender in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history to record multiple seven-game winning streaks in a single season (also from Jan. 23-Feb. 15). ... MacKinnon has 83 points (31 goals, 52 assists) in 38 home games, which is tied with Jaromir Jagr (1995-96) for the second-most at home in a season in the last 30 years (Mario Lemieux had 104 points in 1995-96).