Nieto struck for his second goal of the game 2:14 into the second period to put the Avalanche up 2-1, backhanding home the rebound of a Carl Soderberg shot. The Stars tied the game 30 seconds later when Tyler Seguin set up Ritchie, who scored from close range to make it a 2-2 game at the 2:44 mark.
Just 80 seconds later, Colorado had the lead again. Gabriel Landeskog picked off a Julius Honka pass in the Dallas zone and then outdueled Honka in front of the net before scoring on a backhand shot to put the Avalanche up 3-2 at the 4:04 mark.
A couple minutes later - at the next TV timeout - Lehtonen replaced Bishop in goal. Lehtonen stopped the first eight shots he faced, but Colorado scored on the ninth. After Tyson Barrie's shot from the right point went wide, the rebound kicked out to defenseman Mark Barberio who scored from the top of the left circle with 9.8 seconds left in the second to give the Avalanche a 4-2 lead.
The Stars dominated play in the third period and cut the lead to 4-3 when Benn's blast from the high slot was tipped into the net by Klingberg midway at the 10:12 mark. But Varlamov came up with several big saves to keep the Stars one goal away, and Nieto sealed the win with an empty-net goal to make it a 5-3 final.
"It's one game. You can't be too negative, but you do have to take it serious and understand that we can't afford to let games like this slip by because it's going to haunt us later on in the season," said Stars defenseman Marc Methot. "You don't want to be in March and regret all the games that we are letting slip away. We know what kind of group we have in this team, and there's no excuse for the kind of game we had tonight."
