Eurolanche

Avs beat Dallas

Goaltender Jonathan Bernier was signed in the offseason to help provide support if Semyon Varlamov couldn't go, and he's filled in more than admirably in the Varlamov's absence. Bernier won his fifth consecutive game with a 27-save effort on Saturday night in the Colorado Avalanche's 4-1 victory at the Dallas Stars.

The win tied Bernier's career long, as he has won five in a row two previous times, with his last coming March 18-28, 2017. The Laval, Quebec, native also contributed on the scoresheet with an assist on Colorado's fourth goal of the game.

"I felt pretty good tonight," Bernier said. "I just wanted to play the same way I did before the break and keep things rolling, the good things that we have as a team. It is nice to get rewarded with the apple at the end there."

The three-goal margin of victory by the Avs for their sixth-straight win wasn't nearly as easy as the score might have indicated. The game was tied entering the third period, and it wasn't until Nathan MacKinnon's tally at 6:33 that gave Colorado a lead for the rest of the night. Blake Comeau and Mark Barberio notched markers in the final 100 seconds to seal the win.

"I thought we picked up where we left off before the break," Bernier said. "We played smart. MacK scored a big goal, he just finds a way to put the puck in the net. I thought we played a solid, defensive game as well. Our PK was huge as well, and we came up big in the third there."

Bernier was the NHL's second star of the week prior to the Avs going on their bye, as he registered a 3-0-0 record, 1.60 goals-against average and .957 save percentage in three appearances from Jan. 1-7. The bye didn't seem to affect Bernier early on.

He denied Jamie Benn on a breakaway in the opening minutes of the first period and continued his stellar play throughout the game.

Dallas began the third period on the power play and ended up with nearly four consecutive minutes of man-advantage time to start the frame. Bernier and the Avs' penalty-kill units kept the game knotted at 1-1, as he made five saves while the Stars attempted 10 total shots during the back-to-back power plays.

"Bernie made some outstanding saves on the penalty kill," said Comeau. "I'm a firm believer that your goaltender is your best penalty killer, and he made some outstanding saves for us."

Colorado finished the contest a perfect 4-on-4 on short-handed situations.

"I think the guys that are playing it, take a lot of pride in that," said Avs head coach Jared Bednar of his penalty kill. "You start to have some success and you want to keep it going.

It's a badge of honor for some of those guys on our team. The goaltending, when we needed the saves tonight, especially on the penalty kill, we got it from Berns."

-by Ron Knabenbauer @RonKnab / ColoradoAvalanche.com-