Eurolanche

Role players help Avs end losing streak

The Colorado Avalanche used key contributions from a couple of role players Wednesday night to break a four-game losing streak.

Chuck Kobasew scored with 3:29 remaining in the third period to give the Avalanche a come-from-behind 4-3 win against the Dallas Stars at Pepsi Center.

Kobasew added an assist, and Mark Olver, a healthy scratch in the previous seven games, had a goal and two assists.

The Avalanche rallied from trailing 2-0 and 3-2, tying the game for the second time on Ryan O'Reilly's goal at 6:20 of the third period. O'Reilly split the Stars defense while moving down left wing and fired the puck between goalie Kari Lehtonen's pads.

Stars right wing Jaromir Jagr had a goal and two assists to extend his point-scoring streak against the Avalanche to eight games. He has two goals and eight assists in the streak, and he has more points (46) against Colorado in his career than against any Western Conference team, with 20 goals and 26 assists.

Jagr scored and had an assist in the first period, and he helped set up Ray Whitney's tiebreaking goal late in the second.

Whitney snapped a 2-2 tie at 15:56 after skating from behind the net. He sidestepped the Avalanche's Milan Hejduk and moved through the slot before shipping the puck into the far corner of goalie Semyon Varlamov's net.

The Avalanche tied the game on goals by Olver and Gabriel Landeskog.

Olver scored at 8:48 after Patrick Bordeleau's shot from the slot was deflected to the left side of the net.

Landeskog scored his second shorthanded goal in two games at 13:30 with Bordeleau serving a roughing penalty. The Avalanche captain intercepted Stars defenseman Trevor Daley's bounce pass of the boards at the blue line, skated in on Lehtonen and converted his own rebound. Landeskog, playing in his 100th NHL game, stretched his goal-scoring streak to four games.

Jagr scored at 12:06 from the top of the circles with a shot that squirted through Varlamov, and he passed to Daley for a shot from the middle of the right circle at 16:12.

Whitney scored from the left point on a power play with 15.3 seconds to play in the period, but the goal was disallowed because Erik Cole was in the crease.

-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --