Avalanche score six in win against Stars

DENVER --Mikko Rantanen had two goals and an assist to extend his point streak to 14 games for the Colorado Avalanche in a 6-4 win against the Dallas Stars at Pepsi Center on Saturday.

Rantanen has 27 points (eight goals, 19 assists) in the streak and leads the NHL with 56 points (15 goals, 41 assists).
Gabriel Landeskog gave the Avalanche a 5-4 lead at 16:40 of the third period on a redirection of Erik Johnson's point shot, and Nathan MacKinnon scored an empty-net goal at 18:37 to make it 6-4.
WATCH: [All Stars vs. Avalanche highlights]
"We were confident," said MacKinnon, who also had three assists and is second in NHL scoring with 52 points (21 goals, 29 assists). "We let them back in it to make it 4-4, but it's encouraging. It's kind of like last time we played them, we won it late. It'd be nice to just close them out earlier than what we did, but it was nice to end the losing streak."
Landeskog scored twice, Matt Calvert scored and Semyon Varlamov made 38 saves for Colorado (18-9-6), which had lost three straight.
"We wanted to get back on the right side with this (four-game) homestand," Landeskog said. "It was an important two points and to get on the right track."

Tyler Seguin had two goals and an assist, and Jamie Benn and Esa Lindell scored for Dallas (16-14-3), which went 0-4-0 on a four-game road trip. Anton Khudobin allowed three goals on 20 shots. He was replaced at the start of the second period by Ben Bishop, who made 14 saves.
"We know we were bad, we had an awful start," Stars defenseman Roman Polak said. "We need to be better and prepare better. They had a back-to-back and traveled all night. We weren't ready. I think it's unacceptable."

Landeskog gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 5:45 of the first period on a power play, scoring short side from the right circle.
"I'm fortunate to be part of such a good line (Rantanen, MacKinnon) that finds different ways to score goals," Landeskog said.
Calvert scored to make it 2-0 at 7:57. Matt Nieto forced a turnover along the left boards and passed to Calvert, who deked Khudobin from in front.
Rantanen extended the lead to 3-0 at 19:45 on a power play, scoring from the left hash marks off a pass from MacKinnon.

Colin Wilson (8:30) and Carl Soderberg (14:50) also appeared to score for the Avalanche in the first period, but each was disallowed after Stars coach Jim Montgomery successfully challenged for goalie interference.
"We had one of the best first periods of the year," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. "We scored five goals, two of them get disallowed. What are you going to say? We wanted to make sure we're getting there and breaking the goalie's sight lines and making it hard to move us from the front of the net and getting gritty there. So I guess you get two goalie interference goals called back, you're doing your job."
Lindell scored to make it 3-1 with a shorthanded goal at 8:36 of the second period on a 2-on-1 with Mattias Janmark. Seguin scored 44 seconds later to cut it to 3-2 when he scored off his own rebound.
Rantanen scored his second to make it 4-2 at 14:53 with a one-timer from the right circle on a power play.

Seguin cut it to 4-3 on a power play at 13:14 of the third period, and Benn tied it 4-4 at 15:24 on a rebound in front.
"It shows that we have a lot of fight in us," Montgomery said. "You like the way everyone was battling. Every time we started to gain the momentum, we took unnecessary offensive zone penalties. That to me really was the thing that hurt us down the stretch."

They said it

"We're coming to these buildings on the road and you want to give yourselves the best chance to win, and you spot them three goals, take penalties throughout the game. Our top line -- me, [Tyler] Seguin and [Alexander Radulov] -- has to take a lot of blame. We just didn't give ourselves a chance to win this game." -- Stars captain Jamie Benn
"I will say, I think [Gabriel Landeskog] is the guy who is underrated, probably doesn't get enough credit. He's a glue guy on that line. He opens up lines of communication for those guys. He's a calming influence, he's a competitive guy, he's strong on pucks and he makes a lot of plays that helps [Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen]." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Need to know

MacKinnon and Rantanen each had multipoint games for the 17th time this season and are the fifth teammates since 1981-82 to be the first two NHL players to reach 50 points. They joined Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009-10), Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr of the Penguins (1995-96), Wayne Gretzky and Glenn Anderson of the Edmonton Oilers (1985-86) and Gretzky and Jari Kurri of the Oilers (1983-84).

What's next

Stars:Host the Calgary Flames on Tuesday (8:30 p.m. ET; FS-SW+, SNW, NHL.TV)
Avalanche: Host the New York Islanders on Monday (9 p.m. ET; ALT, MSG+, NHL.TV)