Avalanche lose game to Stars, Erik Johnson to injury

HIGHLIGHTS

GAME RUNDOWN

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the Colorado Avalanche struggle early on in games. Against the Dallas Stars, it was no different, because of course it wasn’t. The benchmark for the Avs seems to be getting through the first five minutes unscathed and typically they start playing better. Mission accomplished, sort of.

Colorado gave up a silly goal that ended up going off one of their own, Andreas Martinsen, just eight seconds after passing the five minute threshold. Small victories, I guess. Curtis McKenzie got credit for the weird goal that seemed to hit everyone on the ice at least once. Despite a strong second half of the period, the Avalanche remained scoreless and the Stars took their 1-0 lead into the second period.

The Avalanche would go two-for-two in making it five minutes into a period without giving up a goal but back-to-back penalties betrayed those efforts and the second Stars power play of the opening six minutes resulted in a Tyler Seguin one-timer goal. It was a tough pill to swallow after some quality penalty killing had limited the Stars to just one shot on goal to that point but Colorado’s insistence on self-destructing was too overwhelming.

A listless third period saw the Avalanche remain scoreless throughout but the Stars added the always fun empty-net goal, courtesy of Patrick Eaves, to make the final score 3-0.

To make matters worse, the Avalanche lost defenseman Erik Johnson during the game after he blocked a shot. Head coach Jared Bednar said postgame Johnson will miss 6-8 weeks with a broken fibula.

THREE STARS

1. Tyler Seguin
2. Kari Lehtonen
3. Jamie Benn

PLAY OF THE GAME

The Seguin goal was a prime example of what makes him such a special player. Given open space and a quality feed, his slap shot was picture perfect and couldn’t have been better placed.

TURNING POINT

Let’s go with puck drop. The Avalanche have been nothing short of atrocious on this homestand and the Stars were happy to capitalize and take the free two points.

BY THE NUMBERS

WHAT’S NEXT

With Colorado’s five-game homestand now complete, the Avalanche head out to the road for a four-game swing out East, beginning Tuesday night at the Nashville Predators. Puck drop is scheduled for 6 p.m. MST.