Avalanche vs. Stars: Martin Necas Scores Twice as Short-Handed Colorado Outlasts Dallas

Colorado showed up in Dallas without Cale Makar, lost a forward to a late scratch, lost another to a misconduct before the first intermission and lost Nathan MacKinnon to the trainer's room for a chunk of the second period. That sounds like a recipe for a long night. Martin Necas made sure it was somebody else's.

Necas scored twice, including a 5-on-3 strike with four seconds left on the two-man advantage, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 3-2 on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center in the opener of a home-and-home set. Artturi Lehkonen also scored, MacKinnon added two assists, and Mackenzie Blackwood made 24 saves three days after Toronto tagged him for five goals.

Ten Forwards, Zero Panic

The attrition started before puck drop. Zachary L'Heureux was scratched late with an upper-body injury, so Colorado opened with 11 forwards and six defensemen. Then, at 17:44 of the first period, Fedor Svechkov fought Radek Faksa and was assessed an instigator minor, a fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct. Per the AP, that left the Avalanche rolling 10 forwards for almost 17 minutes.

Lehkonen had already put Colorado ahead 1-0 at 11:32. Josh Manson's point shot clipped MacKinnon's skate, and Lehkonen swept the loose puck over Jake Oettinger's pad on the backhand. Dallas answered on its only power play of the night. At 19:06, Tyler Seguin's pass toward Mikko Rantanen at the back post deflected off Lehkonen's skate and in. According to the AP, it was the Stars' first home power-play goal in eight tries.

Necas broke the tie 3:05 into the second. He and MacKinnon carried the puck into the zone together, swapped it back and forth like a pickup game at an outdoor rink, and Necas hammered the return pass into the net. Shortly after, MacKinnon and Roope Hintz dropped the gloves at 6:46, the first NHL fight of Hintz's career, per the AP. MacKinnon went to the locker room for facial repairs and was off the bench for more than seven minutes.

Colorado's bench kept shrinking, and its lead kept growing. Kyle Capobianco went off for cross-checking Sam Malinski at 14:18, Faksa followed for tripping MacKinnon at 15:52, and the Avalanche went to work 5-on-3. Oettinger stopped a Devon Toews point shot, Gabriel Landeskog slid the rebound across, and Necas finished from a sharp angle at 16:14 for a 3-1 lead.

Hintz cut it to one at 3:17 of the third, one-timing Seguin's feed from below the goal line inside the near post. That was the last puck to beat Blackwood. From there, the Avalanche spent the closing stretch throwing themselves in front of everything. They finished with 19 blocked shots. Dallas had six.

Necas Delivers, Blackwood Resets

Necas now has four goals on the season, and these two came from the spots a finisher dreams about: a give-and-go through the middle and a sharp-angle finish on a two-man advantage.

MacKinnon's two assists pushed him to 12 points on the season, according to the AP, and he collected them despite losing a big slice of the middle frame to the fight and the repair job. That is a star stat line with an asterisk the size of Texas.

The quieter headline was Blackwood. Toronto beat him five times on 22 shots on Saturday. Against Dallas, he stopped 24 of 26 and never looked rattled. "I thought the last game, I was kind of puck-watching," Blackwood said. "Tonight, I tried to play a little more passive when they were on the bad angles and stuff and just be more aware of where the threats are."

Coach Jared Bednar was thrilled with the bounce-back. "I liked to see Mackenzie bounce back after the Leafs game. He had a great night. Probably his best performance of the year," he said.

For Dallas, Seguin had a goal and an assist, Miro Heiskanen picked up two assists and Oettinger made 22 saves. Per the AP, Oettinger had allowed three goals in his previous four games, so giving up three in one night felt like a plot twist.

The Turning Point

The 5-on-3 goal is the obvious hinge, but the bigger story is what Dallas failed to do against Colorado's thin lineup. The Stars won 64.3 percent of the faceoffs, outhit the Avalanche 26-18 and still produced just one goal at even strength, from Hintz.

Stars coach Glen Gulutzan nailed the diagnosis. "We need to put something home 5-on-5 and capitalize on some of our chances that we did create," he said. "They capitalized on the ones we gave them, and we didn't capitalize on the ones they gave us."

Faksa's trip gave Colorado a two-man advantage, and Colorado cashed it. Dallas got one power play all night. In a one-goal game, that math decides everything.

Stats That Matter

• 5.2 vs. 1.38: Colorado arrived leading the NHL in goals per game, and Dallas owned the league's best goals-against average, per the AP. The offense blinked last.
• 19-6: Blocked shots in Colorado's favor. The Avalanche bought this win with shin pads.
• 64.3%: Dallas' faceoff win rate. Plenty of puck, not enough payoff.
• 1-for-1: The Stars' power play. Perfect efficiency, tiny sample.

What It Means

Colorado improves to 4-2-0 with eight points and 2-1-0 on the road, bouncing back from Saturday's 6-3 home loss to Toronto. Doing it without Makar, who had seven points in five games according to NHL.com, makes it even more impressive. "It was a hard-fought game for this time of year, the most physical game that we've played, and I'm pretty happy with it," Bednar said.

Dallas drops to 2-3-1 and 1-2-0 at home, with two straight losses. The Stars were also without Wyatt Johnston, a late scratch. Per the AP, he had played in all 395 games, regular season and playoffs, since he made the team in 2022.

Seguin, for one, sounded more fired up than worried. "I know it's super early in the year, but you feel the intensity," he said. "Maybe not playoff intensity, but it's a fast game against them always."

The rematch is Wednesday in Denver, where the Stars won both of last season's meetings in shootouts, per the AP.

Closing Take

Colorado played this one like a band that lost its drummer at soundcheck and still nailed the encore. The Avalanche were short a forward, short their Norris Trophy defenseman and briefly short their superstar, and they still walked out of Dallas with two points. Depth charts are nice. Necas with a two-man advantage is nicer.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.