Eurolanche

Lehtonen, Stars shut out Avalanche

Kari Lehtonen had 23 saves for his first shutout of the season to help the Dallas Stars to a 3-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Saturday.

The Stars (10-10-6) went 1-2-1 on their four-game road trip. They are 4-7-4 on road this season, with two of the wins against the Avalanche.

Colorado (9-13-1) lost all five games of its homestand (0-4-1) and is 4-8-1 at home.

Lehtonen, who has 35 NHL shutouts, ended a personal three-game losing streak. He has two wins in his past six games, both against Colorado. He had 34 saves in a 3-2 home win against the Avalanche Nov. 17.

Patrick Eaves scored into an empty net with 1:22 remaining for his 10th goal.

The Stars went ahead 2-0 on Tyler Seguin's power-play goal at 6:02 of the second period. Jamie Benn had the puck in the right corner and passed to Seguin in the left circle for a one-timer that beat Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov to the stick side for his ninth goal.

Dallas had been 2-for-17 on the power play in the past seven games before Seguin scored.

Curtis McKenzie, a healthy scratch in six of the previous seven games, gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 5:08 of the first period. He took a shot that Varlamov stopped, but the goalie wasn't able to reach the puck in front of him with his stick. McKenzie got his stick on it during a scramble in front and put the rebound in off the right post for his second goal.

Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson sustained a leg injury in the second period and didn't return.

-- by Rick Sadowski for NHL.com --