Rantanen has 4 points, Avalanche top Stars to gain in Central

DENVER -- Mikko Rantanen had a goal and three assists for the Colorado Avalanche in a 5-2 win against the Dallas Stars at Ball Arena on Saturday.

The Avalanche moved into a tie with the Stars, who have played one more game, for second place in the Central Division. Both teams are one point behind the Minnesota Wild, who lost 4-1 to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, for first place.
Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals, and Alexandar Georgiev made 26 saves for the Avalanche (45-24-6), who have won four of five.
"I thought we had a really good team effort tonight," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. "And start to finish, too, like full 60, competitive, detailed, very disciplined with the puck. I felt like we managed the puck pretty well. You're not going to win every game, but I do feel like your response after a loss (4-2 to the Wild on Wednesday) is huge."
Tyler Seguin and Joe Pavelski scored, and Jason Robertson had two assists for the Stars (41-21-14), who had won two straight. Jake Oettinger made 27 saves in his second start in as many nights after a 5-2 win at the Arizona Coyotes on Friday.
"Considering the circumstances, we came out ready to play, and we knew what was at stake and played well," Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. "The errors we made, turning a puck over, taking a too many men on the ice penalty, that's a team that makes you pay for that. I think some of those are fatigue mistakes, but I think there was a lot of good things, too. And I think everyone knows that you're going to have to beat those guys in order to get through the West."
MacKinnon gave the Avalanche a 1-0 lead at 8:54 of the first period. Rantanen stole the puck in the right corner and passed to MacKinnon, who scored with a one-timer after being left all alone on the inside edge of the left circle.
"The pass was elite, and 'Nate' moved right in after he [dumped] it down. He didn't hang around at the blue line and hope for something different to happen," Bednar said. "He drove right into like the best scoring area that there is, right between the hash marks, and capitalized on it. Plus the shot was elite. It was on and off his tape."

Logan O'Connor extended the lead to 2-0 at 6:04 of the second period, shooting five-hole from the high slot after cutting back on Miro Heiskanen.
"I saw [Heiskanen] had a bit of a bad gap because of how the neutral zone lined up, so I decided to push it and try and use that gap to my advantage," O'Connor said. "I actually was [looking five-hole], which [Bowen Byram] didn't believe me afterwards. But I was looking five-hole. Once I knew I pushed it, I figured there's a chance that things might open up there."
Seguin cut the lead to 2-1 at 11:54, chipping in a centering pass from Robertson at the right post on a power play.
MacKinnon responded with his own power-play goal to make it 3-1 at 19:47. He scored with a quick shot above the circles off a face-off win by J.T. Compher.
"Obviously, we rely on those guys a lot, especially with some of the guys that are out of the lineup, the lack of depth scoring some nights," Bednar said. "And I'm proud of them, too, because I thought they played a really good game the other night, but they didn't get on the sheet. And it was a close game and it was a big game. Well, this is another one of those games, and they responded tonight and found a way to execute and make some plays and get on the board. So it certainly helps our chances of winning when they do that."

Dallas appeared to cut the lead at 9:09 of the third period, but Colorado challenged the play for goaltender interference, and the call was overturned after a video review determined Ryan Suter pushed O'Connor into Georgiev.
Valeri Nichushkin scored into an empty net to make it 4-1 at 16:55 of the third period.
Pavelski cut it to 4-2 at 18:44 when he tipped a point shot from Robertson on a power play.
"We were pretty excited to play, too," Pavelski said. "These are fun games. We felt it right from warmups, right from going out. We didn't do enough things right, and we didn't execute on some of our rushes and chances we had. But it was a competitive game."
Rantanen scored into another empty net at 19:48 for the 5-2 final.
"I'm trying to play hard and try to defend hard. It's big [and] important now and in the stretch here," Rantanen said. "I think I can still elevate my game even going into the last seven games here and get ready for playoffs."
NOTES: Rantanen had his fourth four-point game of the season and reached 500 points in the NHL (214 goals, 286 assists in 483 games). … MacKinnon had his 32nd multipoint game of the season. Only Joe Sakic (35 in 1995-96, 34 in 2000-01) and Peter Forsberg (33 in 1995-96) have had more in a season since the Avalanche moved to Colorado in 1995-96. Peter Stastny holds the franchise record with 42 multipoint games for the Quebec Nordiques in 1981-82.