Eurolanche

Stars top Avalanche

Rookie Jason Dickinson scored a goal in his NHL debut, and the Dallas Stars moved within one victory of winning the Central Division by defeating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 at American Airlines Center on Thursday.

Dallas (49-23-9) remained even in points with the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 overtime winners against the Chicago Blackhawks, for first place in the division. Each team plays its final game Saturday. However, the Stars own the tiebreaker because they have 47 regulation/overtime wins, three more than St. Louis.

The Stars have won eight of their past 11 games.

Dickinson, recalled from Texas of the American Hockey League earlier in the day because center Jason Spezza was ill and couldn't play, gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 15:13 of the first period when he beat Calvin Pickard with a backhand shot that deflected off the stick of Colorado defenseman Tyson Barrie.

Colton Sceviour and Jordie Benn had second-period power-play goals for Dallas. Antoine Roussel had an empty-net goal and Kari Lehtonen made 17 saves.

Francois Beauchemin and Shawn Matthias scored third-period goals for Colorado (39-38-4).

Dallas dominated the first period, outshooting Colorado 15-4 and taking the lead on a goal by Dickinson, the 29th player taken in the 2013 NHL Draft.

The Stars scored twice after Colorado defenseman Erik Johnson was assessed a five-minute penalty and a game misconduct for boarding Dallas defenseman Johnny Oduya 3:07 into the second period.

Sceviour made it 2-0 when scored his 11th of the season 36 seconds into the long power play. Colorado forward Mikhail Grigorenko went off for hooking at 7:03, giving the Stars a two-man advantage, and Benn's slap shot from the left point beat Pickard top shelf for a 3-0 lead.

Beauchemin beat Lehtonen at 9:06 of the third period with a wrist shot from the right circle through heavy traffic. But Roussel hit the empty net with 3:06 remaining, 30 seconds after Pickard left the ice for an extra attacker. Matthias scored with 59.9 seconds remaining.

--by Steve Hunt for NHL.com--