Dallas – Dallas and Colorado have been longtime rivals in the Western Conference, meeting four times in the playoffs since 1999 – including twice in the conference finals.
And as hockey markets, Dallas and Denver also are at strikingly similar crossroads.
The announced attendance of 17,491 for the Stars’ 5-4 victory over the Avalanche on Monday night at the American Airlines Center was a little more than 1,000 short of a sellout. Much like Colorado’s non-sellouts at the Pepsi Center this season, there were blocks of empty seats in the upper reaches of the arena, but nothing embarrassing or glaring.
Like the Avalanche, though, the Stars not long ago were automatic sellouts and had a sellout streak end at 238 games in October 2004. Dallas has had only two sellouts in eight home games this season.
Colorado’s official sellout streak ended at 487 games this season, and the Avalanche has announced sellouts at five of its 11 home games.
Hat almost fits
Marek Svatos, who had two goals in the first 6:51 of the loss for the Avs, had a chance to complete a natural hat trick midway through the first period, but could not get a good shot off from his unattended spot in the slot.
“I had a couple of other chances and, unfortunately, they didn’t go in and it cost us in the end,” Svatos said. “We had a chance to end up our road trip with a win, a three-game winning streak, but we didn’t.”
Final goal
Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj, in the net for the third consecutive game, didn’t cement his hold on the No. 1 job with the five-goal night. The final one, scored by Antti Miettinen, came out of a scramble in front.
“I was trying to look for it and all of a sudden, his shot came,” Budaj said. “I didn’t see it, so I reacted kind of late and they scored. It’s a tough play.”
Footnotes
Kurt Sauer, who still has played in only one game, and Cody McCormick again were the healthy scratches for Colorado….Joe Sakic again played the point on the first power-play unit….With regular Stars broadcaster Daryl Reaugh working on the Versus cable telecast, former Dallas winger Brett Hull stepped in as the radio analyst.
