Kari Lehtonen, Stars shut out Avalanche

DENVER -- Kari Lehtonen had 23 saves for his first shutout of the season to help the Dallas Stars to a 3-0 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center on Saturday.
The Stars (10-10-6) went 1-2-1 on their four-game road trip and are 4-7-4 on road this season.
Colorado (9-13-1) went 0-4-1 on its homestand and lost defenseman Erik Johnson to a broken fibula in the second period. He's expected to miss 6-8 weeks.

WATCH: All Stars vs. Avalanche highlights
Lehtonen, who has 35 NHL shutouts, ended a personal three-game losing streak. He has two wins in his past five games, both against Colorado. He had 34 saves in a 3-2 home win against the Avalanche Nov. 17.
"It's nice," Lehtonen said, "but it was really like a whole team shutout. We took some chances in the first [period], but then after that we just played really solid. We didn't try anything stupid when it wasn't there, and then when we had something we tried to make a play. For us it's a step in the right direction and something we hope we can build on."
Curtis McKenzie, a healthy scratch in six of the previous seven games, gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 5:08 of the first period when he converted his own rebound for his second goal of the season.
The Stars went ahead 2-0 on Tyler Seguin's power-play goal at 6:02 of the second period with the Avalanche's Rene Bourque off for slashing. Dallas had been 2-for-17 on the power play in seven games before Seguin scored his ninth goal of the season.
"Feels good to contribute and do what I'm supposed to do," Seguin said.
Patrick Eaves scored into an empty net with 1:22 remaining for his 10th goal.
"From start to finish we played the game the right way, we got the lead and continued to play the game the right way, which was important," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "We didn't give up any big plays, we got a big power-play goal. I liked five of our [previous] six periods and tonight I liked all three and we finally got rewarded. It was good to see us play that well away from the puck."
The Avalanche have allowed the first goal in 17 of 23 games and were limited to five shots each in the second and third periods. They had 23 total.
"Just playing horrible hockey," Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon said. "It starts with us, key guys ... all of us need to be better. We haven't been good this homestand, we've been pretty bad. The top guys need to be the top guys, that's how you win, not trying to force things.
"I'm not saying we're approaching with a losing mindset, but we're definitely tentative, especially in the first period. I don't think we've scored the first goal in I don't know how long, but it's been bad."

Goal of the game

The Stars were on a power play when Jamie Benn had the puck in the right corner. He made a diagonal pass to Seguin in the left circle for a one-timer that beat goalie Semyon Varlamov to the stick side.

Save of the game

MacKinnon took a hard shot from the right circle at 16:29 of the second period that struck the bottom of Lehtonen's mask, which came off on impact. The puck dropped into Lehtonen's glove, and he put the mask back on as if it was a routine play.

Highlight of the game

The Stars put on a forechecking clinic in the late stages of the third period, hemming the Avalanche in their end to prevent them from mounting a comeback.

Unsung moment of the game

After permitting four power-play goals in the first three games of their road trip, the Stars limited the Avalanche to four shots while killing off all four of their penalties.

They said it

"Obviously we didn't want to end [the road trip] with a loss, so we came out prepared. I thought we played a structured game. This building has been tough on us in the past." -- Stars right wing Patrick Eaves
"We're creating some chances and we're not capitalizing on them, and when other teams are getting them, they are. We have opportunities on the power play to get back in the game and I didn't feel it was good enough. We're not creating enough chances on that, we're not making the difference on the power play, and that's how other teams are hurting us." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

Seguin had a goal and an assist to extend his scoring streak to four games (two goals, three assists) ... Avalanche defenseman Fedor Tyutin was a late scratch because of a lower-body injury ... Varlamov won his previous seven home games against the Stars.

What's next

Stars: Host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW, SNF, NHL.TV)
Avalanche: At the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TVAS, ALT, FS-TN, NHL.TV)