Wedgewood, Avalanche shut out Stars, widen lead atop Central Division

DALLAS -- Martin Necas scored the go-ahead goal and had an assist, and Scott Wedgewood made 17 saves to help the Colorado Avalanche to a 2-0 win against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

“It’s so evenly matched teams,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “In every game we’ve played them, it’s one play. One team capitalizing on a chance, a goalie making a save, maybe a power play or a penalty kill. It’s a fine, fine line between winning and losing when we play these guys. You look at the standings we’re right there beside each other for a reason. There’s things in every game that I like and there’s some things in the games that I don’t like that we have to be aware of. That’s just how things are going to go when you play the Dallas Stars.”

Nathan MacKinnon also scored for Colorado (50-15-10), which had lost two of three and became the first team to reach 50 wins this season. The Avalanche extended their lead in the Central Division to eight points over the second-place Stars and have played two fewer games.

“At times, you do a lot of work but nothing gets to your net,” Wedgewood said. “It kind of felt like not rewarding in the sense of effort and shots. It was more hit your spot, wait for it, it doesn’t happen. Hit your spot, wait for it, it doesn’t happen. That was a playoff hockey game, a shutdown hockey game. Everyone was doing their details; everybody was backchecking, everybody was trying to block shots. That was almost a measuring stick for both teams of how playoff games can feel. 

“There was some big hits, some big blocks, a couple of power plays on each side, some good penalty kills. One team makes a play and the game’s over. You need some of those coming down the stretch.”

Casey DeSmith made 20 saves for Dallas (45-20-12), which is 1-2-1 in its past four and 2-5-2 in its past nine.

Each team has clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

 “You saw what you’re probably in store for come playoff time with most teams, especially in the Central,” Stars coach Glen Gulutzan said. “Just that tight checking, both teams willing to check. Scoring chances pretty even through two periods, not a lot going on. First period, I thought it had a lot of pace to it, you could see that both teams came ready to play back and forth. Real fast track, very even period. Second was a real muddy track, even period. It was almost a ‘Who scores first?’ It’s just one of those games.

“They made a play first and got the first goal, and that was the difference.”

DeSmith kept it 0-0 when he stopped Sam Malinski on a breakaway at 9:24 of the third period.

“He played great again. He’s been great all year,” Dallas captain Jamie Benn said of DeSmith. “We’re lucky to have two great goalies on this team (with Jake Oettinger) and we can throw either in on any given night. It’s too bad we couldn’t get that one for him. He prepares for the games really well when he’s playing and when he’s not. If we need him, he’s ready to go. Solid competitor, great teammate, and great goalie.” 

Necas made it 1-0 at 10:39, redirecting the puck in at the right post off a backdoor pass from Artturi Lehkonen.

“Tight game. Not much there defensively. Just the way it goes sometimes,” Necas said. “The schedule is so busy, sometimes it’s hard to get prepared mentally for every game. I feel like last game (an 8-6 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday) especially in our heads we weren’t ready. A couple of days off and coming into this one, we knew it was a big one. I feel like we played really good defensively, didn’t give up much, PK was great, (Wedgewood) was unreal.”

MacKinnon scored into an empty net at 19:04 for the 2-0 final.

Colorado held the second-best power play in the League (28.9 percent) off the score sheet, going 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

“They’re the best road (penalty) kill in the League (85.7 percent), so they’ve done a good job the whole year,” Dallas forward Mikko Rantanen said. “Teams are trying to pressure us, so we’ve got to have better support and move the puck quicker. We didn’t get into the zone and get some zone time, where we’re good at. They did a good job breaking us even before we got into the zone. That’s important in the playoffs because you might only get one or two (power plays) in the whole game, so you’ve got to make them pay for it and get some big goals. They did a better job today than us.”

Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns played his 1,000th consecutive game, joining Phil Kessel (1,064 games) as the only players in NHL history to accomplish the feat. Burns had two shots on goal in 18:16 of ice time.

NOTES: With his 51st goal, MacKinnon matched his career high set in 2023-24. … This marks the third time that the Avalanche are the first team in a season to 50 wins. The others are 2000-01 and 2021-22, when they won their second and third Stanley Cup championship.