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Stars lose Stephen Johns, lose 5-3 to Colorado

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The Pepsi Center in Denver has not been kind to the Dallas Stars in recent memory. This game held a familiar script as noted Stars stopper Semyon Varlamov (.919 SV%) turned in a quality start for Colorado and led his team to a 5-3 victory.

Perhaps even more important was the loss of Stephen Johns on the blue line after he took a high hit into the boards from Avalanche center Matt Duchene in the first period. In the replay, Johns’ head appeared to bounce off of the glass.

Johns went through the NHL mandated concussion protocol and did not return to the game.

Stars head coach Ken Hitchcock did some juggling with the lineup. The outstanding Roussel-Faksa-Pitlick line drew the start because of their infectious energy. Natural center Jason Spezza began the game on Martin Hanzal’s wing. Mattias Janmark centered the fourth line.

In the first period, Jamie Benn continued his consistent goal scoring and found the back of the net on a wrist shot after an impressive zone keep. He also assisted on a goal with a hard and high slap shot that John Klingberg redirected into the net to pull within one goal in the third period.

Early in the game, the Stars committed a minor penalty, but manufactured two quality short-handed scoring chances. Martin Hanzal fed Devin Shore a cross ice pass on a rush, and Tyler Seguin nearly had a breakaway goal.

Dallas had a couple of chances on the power play in the first period, but failed to take advantage. On the first, Alex Radulov committed a slash 30 seconds in and it cost them dearly. Colorado winger Matt Nieto tied the game and killed Dallas momentum when he crashed the net on a rush after Gabriel Landeskog pushed the puck into the slot via Ben Bishop’s stick. Nieto and Landeskog were far from finished impacting the game with the former picking up a hat trick.

Recent Stars standout Tyler Pitlick drew a double minor, but Dallas struggled with zone entries and squandered the opportunity.

Nieto scored early in the second period off of a mishandled puck by Bishop. More line shuffling landed Brett Ritchie on the top line in and it immediately paid off as Ritchie easily scored his first goal of the season off of a nifty feed from Seguin. Any momentum that Dallas sought to gain was quickly snuffed out by a goal from Avalanche captain  Landeskog, who scored scored only 40 seconds after Ritchie.

Ken Hitchcock decided to swap goaltenders as Bishop seemed to be struggling. Stars backup goaltender Kari Lehtonen looked sharp for most of the second period but yielded a goal with under ten seconds to go before the second intermission to deflate an already winded Stars team.

Dallas put forth a valiant effort to get back into the game in the third period, stringing together several quality shifts. It finally paid off with Klingberg’s tipped in goal which was too little too late as Nieto scored into an empty net for his third goal, and Stars had their four game winning streak end in Denver.

The Goals

First Period

8:03 Jamie Benn holds the zone by catching the puck right on the blue line and skates to the left circle unhindered for a wrist shot to beat Varlamov. Klingberg and Seguin with the assists. Stars 1, Avalanche 0

13:45 Matt Nieto cleaned up a rebound on a 4-on-4 after Julius Honka wasn’t able to clear the puck. Stars 1, Avalanche 1

Second Period

2:14 Ben Bishop went behind the net to play the puck, had it stripped, then made an impressive initial save on Soderberg’s attempt. Matt Nieto tapped in the puck for his second goal. Stars 1, Avalanche 2

2:44 Brett Ritchie was all alone in front of the net and scored his first goal of the season off a pass from Tyler Seguin from behind the net. Stars 2, Avalanche 2

4:04 Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog caught Ben Bishop out of position and scored after Juilius Honka turned the puck over on an attempted breakout. Stars 2, Avalanche 3

19:50 Mark Barberio one-timed a rebound the beat Kari Lehtonen with less than 10 seconds to go in the period. Stars 2, Avalanche 4

Third Period

10:12 John Klingberg gets credit for the tip in as Jamie Benn fired a hard slap shot from the high slot to pull within one goal. Stars 3, Avalanche 4

19:56 Nieto completed his hat trick with three seconds to go after the Stars emptied their net. Stars 3, Avalanche 5

Avalanche lineup
Sven Andrighetto — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Gabriel Landeskog — Matt Duchene — Nail Yakupov
Matt Nieto — Carl Soderberg — Blake Comeau
A.J. Greer — Alexander Kerfoot — Gabriel Bourque

Nikita Zadorov — Erik Johnson
Anton Lindholm — Tyson Barrie
Mark Barberio — Chris Bigras

Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier

Injured: Colin Wilson, Patrik Nemeth (shoulder), Tyson Jost (lower-body), J.T. Compeer (broken thumb)

Scratched: Andrei Mironov

Stars lineup
Jamie Benn — Tyler Seguin — Alexander Radulov
Remi Elie — Martin Hanzal — Jason Spezza
Antione Roussel — Radek Faksa — Tyler Pitlick
Devin Shore — Mattias Janmark — Brett Ritchie

Marc Methot — John Klingberg
Dan Hamhuis — Stephen Johns
Esa Lindell — Julius Honka

Ben Bishop
Kari Lehtonen

Scratched: Jamie Oleksiak, Greg Pateryn, Gemel Smith

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