Eurolanche

Stars go for fourth straight win vs Avs

Season series: This is the fifth and final game between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars. The Stars dropped the first three, but won the last time the teams played on Dec. 17, 3-2 in Dallas. Stars forward Tyler Seguin has five points and Avalanche forward Paul Stastny has four goals in the four games.

Big story: After winning one of their first 10 games in 2014, the Stars are suddenly on a roll with three straight wins while outscoring their opponents 14-1. Dallas looks for its first four-game winning streak of the season.

Team Scope:

Avalanche: Colorado comes off a 5-2 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday. Starting goalie Sami Aittokallio got the start but was pulled after two periods after allowing three goals on 18 shots. Semyon Varlamov allowed two goals on 11 shots in the third. The Avalanche were down 3-0 before battling back to make it a 3-2 game but couldn't generate many chances in the third period.

"The only gray area, I would say, I would have loved to see us having more shots on net in the third period. I think we finished with seven or eight shots and I would have loved to see us getting 10 or 15 shots. … But we had a few good chances," coach Patrick Roy said.

Colorado, which had allowed more than two goals once in its first 13 games, has allowed 16 goals in four games. The Avalanche have won four of their past five road games.

Stars: Dallas defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-0 on Saturday to improve to 3-0-0 on a five-game homestand. They face the Avalanche on Tuesday followed by the New Jersey Devils on Thursday.

"We went through a really rough patch right before these wins so it's nice to be the winner after these games after losing seven in a row -- I don't know how many we lost," said goalie Kari Lehtonen, who had 24 saves in the shutout.

Dallas has been aided by excellent special teams; the Stars are 10-for-10 on penalty kills and have connected on four of 11 power plays during the winning streak. They scored twice with the man advantage against the Penguins.

"We knew we'd have to show some really good discipline; we knew we were probably going to have to score on the power play to win," coach Lindy Ruff said after the game.

Who's hot: Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has five points in four games. … Stars forward Jamie Benn has two goals and four assists in three games. Lehtonen has allowed one goal in three games (3-0-0) and has two shutouts.

Injury report: The Avalanche are without defenseman and Cory Sarich (back) and forward David Van Der Gulik (head), who are on injured reserve. Goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere (back spasms) did not play Saturday. … The Stars will be missing defenseman Stephane Robidas (leg) who is on IR.

-- by NHL.com --

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