Avalanche rally, top Stars in shootout
The official game recap Dallas Stars vs. Colorado AvalancheRyan O'Reilly scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Colorado Avalanche a 5-4 victory against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Friday.
O'Reilly, Colorado's first shooter, beat Stars goaltender Kari Lehtonen with a backhand to his glove side. All three Dallas shooters; Jason Spezza, Jamie Benn and Vernon Fiddler, failed to beat Semyon Varlamov, who ended the game by knocking away Fiddler's backhand.
Tyson Barrie and Nate Guenin each had a goal and two assists for Colorado, which swept five games from the Stars this season. Varlamov made 32 saves in regulation and overtime. Jarome Iginla and Gabriel Landeskog also scored for the Avalanche (27-24-11), who overcame deficits of 3-1 and 4-3 in the third period.
Cody Eakin scored two goals for the Stars (27-25-10), who also got goals from Spezza and Antoine Roussel.
The Stars opened the scoring 3:43 into the second period when Eakin slapped a rolling puck past Varlamov. Eakin received the puck after a pass by Ryan Garbutt deflected off the skate of Colorado's John Mitchell.
Garbutt had a chance to make it 2-0 on a breakaway at 6:18 but Varlamov denied him with a stick sav.
Instead, Colorado tied it at 9:55 when Barrie scored his 10th of the season with a wrist shot from the right point that sailed under Lehtonen's glove. But Spezza put Dallas back in front at 10:24 when he knocked a rebound past Varlamov for his 15th of the season. Varlamov made a pad save on Erik Cole's shot, but Spezza got to the rebound and beat Varlamov top shelf to the far side.
Dallas outshot Colorado 16-3 in the second period.
Eakin made it 3-1 at 3:05 of the third with and unassisted goal, beating Varlamov high on the glove side with a well-placed wrist shot from the left circle.
But the Avalanche tied it with two goals in a span of 75 seconds. Iginla redirected a wrist shot by Guenin past Lehtonen at 5:43 for his 19th goal of the season. Guenin tied it at 6:58 when his wrist shot from the left circle deflected in off Lehtonen's pads. The goal, Guenin's second of the season, stood after a video review determined Lehtonen had not kept the rolling puck from crossing the goal line.
The Stars regained the lead at 11:02 when Roussel scored his 12th of the season. His wrist shot from the slot deflected off Varlamov's left pad and trickled over the line.
But Colorado answered again at 13:17 when Landeskog got his stick on Barrie's wrist shot from near the blue line and deflected it off the crossbar and in for his 16th goal of the season.
-- by Steve Hunt for NHL.com --
Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
28/02/2015 - 05:50
