DENVER—John-Michael Liles knew the Colorado Avalanche just needed one more chance.
They didn’t get it.
Sergei Zubov scored a power-play goal with 1:42 left in overtime to give the Dallas Stars a 5-4 exhibition win over the Avalanche on Tuesday night.
Dallas (2-2-1) entered Tuesday night’s game with the most goals against in the league during the preseason but got a solid effort from goalie Mike Smith, who stopped 31 of 35 shots and made a number of point-blank saves.
The Avalanche (3-1-1) had a two-goal lead midway through the third period before back-to-back goals by Niklas Hagman and Brendan Morrow sent the game into overtime.
But Liles wasn’t too disappointed with the team’s effort.
“Any time you get three power-play goals, that’s a good thing,” Liles said. “We ought to be happy, but at the same time we gave up some opportunities on short-handed situations that we shouldn’t have.”
The Avs couldn’t figure out the Stars power play Tuesday. Dallas scored four of their five goals with the man advantage. Zubov scored two of them, his first coming at 17:25 in the second period.
Liles scored two power-play goals in the third period and fellow defenseman Jordan Leopold netted his first of the preseason in the second.
The Avalanche know they will need big plays from the defensemen to pick up where the team left off at the end of last year. A healthy Leopold will help.
“It’s important to get my skating legs back,” Leopold said. “I only played 15 games last year. I took the summer to recover and get stronger. It’s an important part of the year.”
And there’s proof that all the Avs’ defensemen have the green light to jump into the attack. Even Kurt Sauer, who didn’t score a goal in 48 games last year for Avalanche, jumped in on the offensive rush.
“We have a number of guys who can jump into the attack,” Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. “When you see Kurt Sauer trying to create an odd-man rush, it’s an indication they all have a green light to go. We expect them to produce.”
Liles scored his second power-play goal when he pinched into the offensive zone following a scramble for the puck along the boards. He found himself alone with Smith, and after a nifty pass from Joe Sakic, deftly put the puck over the goalie’s left shoulder.
“Offensive opportunities will take care of themselves, and if they’re there, we’re encouraged to jump,” Liles said. “But it’s not something the coaches are pressing on us.”
The Stars and Avs were tied 2-2 before Liles’ scored back-to-back goals.
Wojtek Wolski opened the scoring at 10:55 in the first before Mike Modano tied it for the Stars just four minutes later. Modano also added two assists.
Sakic had three assists for the Avalanche and Chris Conner added three of his own for the Stars.
