In Dallas the Stars’ Joe Pavelski struck for two goals in a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche on Friday. 
“I think it just goes to show how well we’ve been playing defensively,” Oettinger said. “If you look at the scoring chances, I don’t think either team has had a ton. Especially teams like that, it seems like they get a few freebies every game, they’re that good. But we haven’t given any of that, and the guys have done such a good job committing to defense. I think, if you look back two years ago when we went to the [Stanley Cup Final], we’re playing like that team right now, and we just have to keep that going.”
Pavelski has 400 goals in his NHL career, the 10th US-born player to reach the milestone.
“It’s fantastic, good for him,” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “A fantastic career, and a long career. Four hundred goals, that’s a tough thing to achieve in this league. Congrats to him. Very, very happy for him.”
Jake Oettinger got the start for Dallas and made 32 saves; he left the game for concussion protocol and Braden Holtby made four saves in relief. Oettinger returned to the crease at the start of the third period.
“Obviously, I took a hit there,” Oettinger said. “It’s just part of the protocol that when they think you took a hard hit, to pull you out. Obviously, the NHL cares about players and their health. I think it’s important that we have that in place. You never want to come out of a game, but you got to do what you got to do.”
The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Avalanche.
“We weren’t ready to start the game on time for me,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “I just think they came out with a lot of jump and were more competitive early in that game. We were lucky it was only two goals, but two is enough. I mean, we spotted them two goals in the first and ended up losing by two. I think we got marginally better as they game went on, but still didn’t do enough things to win the hockey game.”
Dallas improved to 9-7-2.
“Great start to the game, clearly,” Bowness said. “Specialty teams were really good. We bent a little there in the third period, but we didn’t break. Spent a little too much time in our zone, but that’s a great hockey team over there. They’re probably the fastest team in the league, so we knew they were going to make a big push at us in the third.”
Cale Makar scored the Avs only goal, late in the third period.
“The [defense], we talked before the game. We need to make sure we box out those guys,” Makar said. “They like to get guys behind us and tipping and stuff. I was guilty of it multiple times early. We started to figure it out as a core going on, but they’re dangerous around the net and their [defensemen] are good at getting pucks through. We need to minimize the amount of chances they get behind [Kuemper] in terms of stuff that he shouldn’t have to worry about. Other than that, it’s just another learning experience for our team.”
Colorado dropped to 10-6-1.
Denis Gurianov also scored for Dallas, his goal made it 3-0 in favor of the Stars.
Darcy Kuemper made 19 saves in the Avs loss.
Obviously, not ideal, that was an early hole that we were in there,” Kuemper said. “You never want that to happen, but just got to kind of focus on the next save, control what you can control. That’s done with. Just try to move forward and kind of stop it at two there.”
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