Stars end season with shootout win

DALLAS -- Tyler Seguin scored the only goal in the shootout and the Dallas Stars defeated the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 at American Airlines Center on Saturday.
Kari Lehtonen stopped Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen to seal the win in the final game of the season for the Stars (34-37-11).
"We wanted it to be entertaining, maybe not that entertaining," Seguin said. "Why not have a little drama I guess."

WATCH: All Avalanche vs. Stars highlights
Jeremy Smith made 42 saves for the Avalanche (22-55-4), who have one game remaining.

Dallas appeared to have won the game with 1:08 remaining in overtime when John Klingberg scored on a wrist shot, but Colorado challenged the play was offside and the goal was overturned.
"I think it kind of sums up the year, actually, where we were leaving and got reviewed," Stars coach Lindy Ruff said. "We had plenty of great opportunities in overtime to put it away, a breakaway, a 2-on-0. It's been a little bit the way the year has gone."
Devin Shore gave the Stars a 1-0 lead at 13:40 of the first period. Greg Pateryn took the initial shot that was deflected by Cody Eakin and snuck through Smith. The puck sat in the crease before Shore went to the net and scored his 13th goal.
"Getting the puck in the back of the net has a lot to do with bounces," Shore said. "And all you can really focus on is generated chances and trying to get as many bounces as you can. And we we're doing that and it ended up being a good start to the game."
Jamie Benn pushed the lead to 2-0 37 seconds into the second on the power play.

Rantanen scored to make it 2-1 at 17:35 when he deflected Tyson Barrie's point shot past Lehtonen.
Gabriel Landeskog tied it 2-2 on a deflection at 5:37 of third period.
MacKinnon gave Colorado a 3-2 lead at 8:24 on the power play on another tipped shot.
"We talked about working through and getting some traffic to the front of the net. So we did that on those goals, just throwing pucks to the front of the net," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Seguin tied it 3-3 at 13:44 when he deflected Esa Lindell's point shot past Smith.

Saves of the game

Smith made a pair of saves on Jason Spezza in overtime with 3:10 remaining. First he stopped Spezza on a breakaway with his right pad and then he thwarted the rebound.

Highlight of the game

Shore nearly scored his second goal with 2:25 remaining in the first period, but Smith was able to reach back with his glove and keep it from crossing the goal line. After a brief review it was confirmed that Smith made the save.
"I thought [Smith] played really well tonight and he deserved a better fate than how we played in front of him," Bednar said.

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Unsung performances of the game

Stars defensemen Patrik Nemeth and Greg Pateryn combined for 11 shots, three hits and blocked two shots.

They said it

"Nervous, for sure. Of course first shift I have puck and it's like, wow." -- Stars rookie forward Denis Gurianov on his first NHL game
"We're getting better at that, but putting together that full 60 [minutes] for our group has been a battle. We've had rough starts for quite some time and then we had trouble in the third period. But I do like the resiliency in our group lately, we've fallen behind and we've had some belief we could come back." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

Rantanen was back in the lineup for Colorado after missing back-to-back games with a lower-body injury. Calvin Pickard will start for the Avalanche on Sunday in the season finale against the St. Louis Blues. … Dallas finished the season with 79 points, the second lowest non-lockout point total since the team moved from Minnesota.

What's next

Avalanche: At the St. Louis Blues on Sunday (6:00 p.m. ET; FS-MW, ALT2, NHL.TV)
Stars: Season over