Logan Stankoven scored, and Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for the Stars (35-17-9), who are 1-3-1 in their past five games and were coming off a 3-2 overtime loss to the New York Islanders on Monday.
“Considering the back-to-back the situation, I thought our guys battled hard and worked hard. I thought there was a handful moments in the game where their speed overwhelmed us, and they were opportunistic,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. "I think our guys didn't quit. They worked hard. I think you got to have short memory in this league and get ready for the next game, and the next game is a real important one.”
Stankoven gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 1:00 of the first period when he one-timed Wyatt Johnston’s pass off Georgiev’s stick.
“It's a great test whenever you get to play them,” Oettinger said. “I think if we go where we want to go, we're going to probably have to go through those guys.”
Joel Kiviranta tied it 1-1 at 2:08, one-timing Cogliano’s cross-ice pass.
“They scored first. We were able to respond pretty quickly, and then I thought all parts of the game were good tonight,” Cogliano said. “Defensively, it seemed like we were really strong in our end on the cycle and limiting chances to the middle of the ice. PK [had] two big kills, power play gets one. I think all parts of our game were going tonight."
Rantanen put the Avalanche in front 2-1 at 5:58 when he located the rebound from MacKinnon’s initial shot and one-handed the puck around Oettinger.
“Anytime you can get the lead is great. Sometimes it's easier to play with the lead, sometimes it's harder,” Colorado defenseman Devon Toews said. “Just depends how the game goes, but at the end of the day, the team that scores most goals wins the game. So, anytime you can have a lead is better than not having it, for sure.”
Cogliano extended the lead to 3-1 at 7:09 of the second period when he kept the puck on a 2-on-1 with Kiviranta and scored with a snap shot from the left face-off circle. Chris Wagner won a puck battle in the neutral zone to spring Cogliano on the rush.
“I thought [Wagner] did a good job of kind of stopping on the puck, and it squirted out. I made a decent shot,” Cogliano said. “Happens once in a while.”