Colorado Avalanche hold on late to defeat the Dallas Stars 4-3

Jan 27, 2014; Dallas, TX, USA; Colorado Avalanche left wing Jamie McGinn (11) celebrate his goal against Dallas Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen (32) at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Avalanche (33-14-5) finished off their season series with the Dallas Stars as they defeated them tonight at American Airlines Center by the final of 4-3. With the win, Colorado improved to 4-1 this season against Dallas. The return of Alex Tanguay has been a huge boost in the line-up as the veteran scored the game-winning goal tonight on a tough goaltender in Kari Lehtonen.

The Avalanche came out of the gates hot as the rookie Nathan MacKinnon scored off of a rebound attempt from Tyson Barrie collecting his 18th goal of his rookie campaign. Maxime Talbot would also pick up the assist on the goal. Late in the first period the Avs would notch another goal as Jamie McGinn would post his 12th goal of the season off of the assists from Ryan O’Reilly and Matt Duchene.

Just under two minutes separated from McGinn’s goal, the Stars would strike back as Jamie Benn scored his 20th of the season as Tyler Seguin came away with the assist. The Stars would begin the second period on a power-play as Avs center John Mitchell would be called for hooking on Valeri Nichushkin. Dallas would convert as Tyler Seguin collected the power-play goal for his 22nd of the season on the assists from Jamie Benn and Alex Goligoski to tie the game at two apiece.

Just under three minutes to go in the second, Avalanche assistant captain Paul Stastny would convert on a power-play goal picking up his 15th goal as captain Gabriel Landeskog picked up a point and Colorado led 3-2. Less than a minute later however, Tyler Seguin would score his second goal of the game to tie it up at three as the Stars kept getting shots on net.

Alex Tanguay has been a nice addition to an Avs team that is getting healthy at the right time. Tanguay would score his 4th goal of the season just four minutes into the third period as Gabriel Landeskog and Maxime Talbot would both collect their second assists of the game.

Colorado would take the 4-3 lead and it would stay that way as Semyon Varlamov stopped the Stars the rest of the way. Varly would stop 41-of-44 shots, .932% save percentage to push the Avs to victory.

The Stars did however dominate the rest of the game after the Jamie McGinn goal in the first period, but it didn’t show up in the score column. Dallas out-shot Colorado in the game 44-to-21; 19-to-8 in the second period and 12-to-3 in the third period.

Three Stars:

3: Jamie Benn (DAL): 1 goal, 1 assist.
2: Tyler Seguin (DAL): 2 goals, 1 assist.
1: Semyon Varlamov (COL): 41-of-44 saves, .932% save percentage.

The Colorado Avalanche (33-14-5) are back in action Thursday night as they take on the division rival Minnesota Wild at home at the Pepsi Center. Puck-Drop is scheduled for 9:00 PM ET, 7:00 PM MT.