Joe Sacco was so sick Sunday night, he had to keep leaving the Avalanche bench in the third period. It’s a wonder former Colorado coach Marc Crawford wasn’t made ill from watching his own Dallas Stars for 60 minutes.
The Avalanche showed no pity on a banged-up, road-weary Stars team, beating Dallas 4-0 in front of only 11,741 at the Pepsi Center. It was Colorado’s sixth win in a row and its second shutout in the last three games.
Craig Anderson had a rocking-chair, 27-save shutout for the Avs, who took back the top spot in the Northwest Division. Anderson has allowed only one goal in the last three games, and the Avs got goals from four players.
“I think the biggest thing with us right now is just confidence,” Avs defenseman Kyle Quincey said. “We’re coming into games expecting to win. We learned the hard way.
“Earlier in the year, we lost some leads, and we’ve gotten past that. We’re not going to give teams any hope, because if you do, they’re going to come back and bury you.”
The Avs outshot Dallas 36-27 and seemed in total control throughout. They even got the breaks, including a goal that resulted from a puck hitting a linesman on what would have been an icing violation against the Avs.
Scott Hannan iced a puck out of the zone, but it struck a linesman at center ice, leading to an odd-man rush for Colorado which Chris Stewart finished off for his 17th goal of the season. That made it 3-0, at 8:54 of the second, and a frustrated Crawford could only throw up his hands in anger at the misfortune.
The best goal of the game came at 11:30 of the first, when rookie T.J. Galiardi scored a short-handed goal — a second-chance putback of his own shot after he stole a puck by the Avs’ bench and raced down the right side.
“I got a step on the other guy, because I think he was sneaking backdoor and went in to try to get it short, low blocker, and the rebound came right to me, so I had a big open net,” Galiardi said. “We want to play a full 60 minutes every night. That’s what we’re working on. We’re not going to sit back when it’s 3-0. We had some trouble earlier in the year with third-period leads, but we’re keeping the foot on the gas and lately it’s been working out.”
The Avs also got goals from Brett Clark and Paul Stastny, with Clark beating Stars goalie Marty Turco with a shot from the point on the power play at 5:16 of the first.
Sacco, who was too ill to meet the media after the game, toughed it out for most of the night on the bench. His departure left Steve Konowalchuk and Sylvain Lefebvre to do the coaching, with Konowalchuk calling the line changes offensively.
“Kono did a great job taking the reins,” Avs rookie Matt Duchene said, laughing.
Stewart had another strong game, with a goal and assist and a game-high six shots on net. The way he’s playing, he’ll probably get some strong consideration for NHL player of the month honors.
“He’s been great for us. He’s so strong on the puck,” Galiardi said.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360, adater@denverpost.com or
