5 things to know: Radulov's return, hat trick power Stars past Avs

Alexander Radulov, a healthy scratch for being late on Tuesday, delivered big time on Thursday.
The winger notched his first career NHL hat trick as the Dallas Stars ran their winning streak to four games with a 4-0 win over the Colorado Avalanche at American Airlines Center.
Jamie Benn also scored for the Stars, and Ben Bishop stopped 31 shots for his second straight shutout and fifth of the season.
Here are five things to know from Thursday's game.

1. Radulov returns and delivers

Radulov was back in the lineup after sitting out Dallas' win over the Rangers as a healthy scratch due to being late for the pregame skate, and he came up big time for the Stars. The winger scored three times, once in the first period, again in the second and then sealing the game with an empty-net goal late in the third.
"It's always nice to bounce back and have a game like that," Radulov said. "You just have to do the little things to help your team win. When you get a chance to score a goal, it is always nice. But the most important thing is the win."
Radulov put the Stars up 1-0 late in the first, going to the net and tapping home a Benn pass from the right circle. He made it a 2-0 game in the second, beating Avalanche goaltender Semyon Varlamov with a shot from the top of the right circle. And then, after Benn scored off a nice feed from Jason Dickinson to make it a 3-0 game early in the third, Radulov finished off the scoring with an empty-net goal.
Radulov finished the night with the three goals, a plus-3 rating, five shots on goal and three blocked shots.
"He's a great competitor," Stars coach Jim Montgomery said of Radulov. "We expected him to play at a high level tonight. You could tell he had an intensity about him the way he was practicing while he was out."
"Rads is a competitive guy. That lit a fire under him," Dickinson said. "He's not going to take that lightly. He wants to be a great player and do big things for us, so I am not surprised that Rads comes out and has a game like that."
As for Tuesday's scratch for being late to the pregame skate, Radulov said it is in the past.
"We're all human. I just overslept and came a little bit late at the time I was supposed to be here," Radulov said. "The rules are rules for everybody. I think it is in the past. We're done. I'll deal with it. It's okay."

2. Shutting down the Avs top line

The line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen was very productive in the Avalanche's two wins over the Stars earlier this season, combing for 14 points (seven goals, seven assists) in the two games.
Thursday night, obviously, the trio did not get on the scoreboard. They had some chances and some shots on goal. Landeskog had the best chances, but overall it was a quiet night for Colorado's big three.
The job of shutting the trio down went primarily to a line of Benn, Dickinson and Blake Comeau, and the defense pair of Esa Lindell and Roman Polak.
"Jamie Benn and Comeau are used to it, but the job Dickinson was incredible," Montgomery said. "He was on top of pucks, and he was better offensively than he's been lately. I think he was gaining confidence throughout the game, and he relished the role.
"We have a lot of confidence in him."
Dickinson got the shutdown role with Radek Faksa out due to injury.
"It wasn't perfect, they had some chances, but all in all, the game ended 4-0, so it was fine," Dickinson said. "It took all three of us on my line and the defense we were out there with to shut them down. It was a highly-talented line."
The Stars were physical at times on the MacKinnon line as they did their best to frustrate the trio.
"We tried to take their time and space away, outwork them," said Lindell. "Be right there next to them when they get the puck, simple as that."

3. Bishop sparkles again for second straight shutout

Make it two straight shutouts for Bishop for the first time in his NHL career.
The Dallas netminder stopped 31 shots in the victory after stopping 28 in the 1-0 victory over the Rangers. He has set a new career-long shutout streak, having not allowed a goal in his last 144:20.
The Stars didn't give up a lot of quality chances on Thursday, but Bishop had some big saves including a sharp glove save on an Alexander Kerfoot bid from the slot and a pad save on a point-blank bid from a wide-open Landeskog.
"[He was] great, like he has been mostly every time," said Lindell. "He's a really good goaltender, helps out the defense a lot, he talks, and he is like an extra guy out there when he plays the puck and helps so much with the breakout. And obviously, he makes big saves every night."
Bishop, who has allowed two goals or fewer in seven of his last nine starts, improved to 22-14-2 on the season and now ranks second in the league in both goals against average (2.13) and save percentage (.930). His five shutouts are tied for third.

4. Racking up two crucial points

The two points were big Thursday because a lot of teams around the Stars in the Western Conference playoff race were winning as well.
St. Louis won at Los Angeles, so the Stars were able to stay within three points of the Blues for third place in the Central Division.
The Stars (35-27-5) remain in the first wild-card spot in the West. They remain one point ahead of Minnesota, which is in the second wild-card spot and won 3-0 at Tampa Bay on Thursday.
Arizona moved into the ninth spot in the West with a 2-0 win over Calgary. The Coyotes are four points behind the Stars.
Colorado dropped into 10th place, falling five points behind the Stars and four points behind the Wild.

5. Radulov hits 20-goal mark

Thursday's shutout was the eighth of the season for the Stars. ... Radulov has tallied points in five of his last six games (five goals, three assists). ... Radulov's three goals give him 20 for the season. ... Benn's goal was his 25th of the season. ... The Stars outshot the Avalanche 33-31. ... Colorado had a 63-54 advantage in shot attempts. ... High-danger scoring chances were 10-10, according to naturalstattrick.com. ... Radulov led the Stars with five shots on goal. ... The Stars were 0-for-1 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill. ... Dallas won 23 of 46 faceoffs (50 percent). ... Tyler Seguin won 7 of 11 faceoffs (64 percent). Roope Hintz won 7 of 7 (100 percent). Dickinson won 4 of 17 (24 percent). ... The Stars had 29 hits in the game. ... Comeau led the Stars with six hits. Benn and Lindell both had five. ... Lindell led the Stars with 26:37 of ice time. ... Faksa missed the game with a neck injury suffered Tuesday. He is considered day-to-day.
Here is the lineup the Stars used to start Thursday's game along with injuries and scratches.
Roope Hintz - Tyler Seguin - Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn - Jason Dickinson - Blake Comeau
Mattias Janmark - Jason Spezza - Brett Ritchie
Andrew Cogliano - Joel L'Esperance - Valeri Nichushkin
Miro Heiskanen - John Klingberg
Esa Lindell - Roman Polak
Taylor Fedun - Ben Lovejoy
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Jamie Oleksiak, Julius Honka
Injured:Radek Faksa (neck), Mats Zuccarello (broken arm), Tyler Pitlick (wrist surgery), Martin Hanzal (back), Marc Methot (knee surgery), Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mark Stepneski has covered the Stars for DallasStars.com since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @StarsInsideEdge.