DALLAS — The Matt Duchene-centered “Nine Line” had both goals — by Duchene and winger T.J. Galiardi — in the Avalanche’s 3-2 loss to Dallas on Friday night, but the NHL’s rookie scoring leader wasn’t inclined to harp on that.
Instead, Duchene talked about another “rookie” lesson learned on the faceoff and its ensuing sequence that culminated in Dallas veteran center Mike Modano’s second goal of the game, the one that broke a 2-2 tie at 7:01 of the third period.
“I wasn’t able to get to (Modano) in time and get a stick on him,” Duchene said. “I know he’s a great player, and he came up big for them tonight. But you never want to be on for the winning goal against.”
Duchene said the problem began on the faceoff in the Colorado zone against Modano, 39, who played his first NHL game nearly two years before Duchene was born.
“I think I beat him almost every draw the whole night,” Duchene said, who was 6-for-12 on faceoffs against various Stars for the game. “On that one, the linesman was talking to me when he dropped the puck, and I wasn’t ready for it.
“I went up and talked to (the linesman) after and just told him that I wasn’t ready for the draw because he was talking to me. I lost it clean because I just wasn’t ready for the draw. Then we got discombobulated after that. The puck got jumping around the slot, and I was close to him, but it came to him and he had the open net and fired it in before I could get there.”
After the draw, former Avalanche defenseman Karlis Skrastins got off a shot from the point before a scramble ensued, and the puck eventually ended up on Modano’s stick, whose wrist shot beat Colorado goalie Craig Anderson to break the tie and lift the Stars to their fifth straight win at home.
The goal was the 555th of Modano’s career. His two- point night gave him 1,351 in his career, moving him past Mats Sundin and into the No. 25 spot on the all-time league list.
Modano’s other goal wasn’t a thing of beauty, since his centering pass from behind the goal line went off Colorado defenseman Kyle Cumiskey and past Anderson to give the Stars a 2-1 lead at 7:55 of the first period. That gave the Stars two goals on their first three official shots on Anderson, who ended up the hard-luck loser for the second straight night after the Avalanche fell 1-0 at home to Minnesota on Thursday.
“The second goal was just an unlucky bounce for us,” said Anderson, who emphasized he was all for playing on the back-to-back nights.
“The history of the year was us having pretty good success on the second night,” Anderson said. “For me, it felt good, and I think Coach (Joe Sacco) is taking it game by game, and if I’m playing well, he just decided to go with me again.”
Jamie Benn opened the scoring for Dallas 3:18 into the game, but Duchene’s 17th of the season tied it up only 36 seconds later, bursting past Skrastins and beating Dallas goalie Alex Auld. Galiardi made it 2-2 at 10:56 of the second.
“I think our energy level wasn’t probably where it needed to be from the start of the game,” Sacco said. “We talked about having a good start. You know, we just didn’t play well enough. That’s the bottom line.”
Terry Frei: 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com
Avs Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Mike Modano.
OK, so one of his two scores was a lucky bounce, but he got his 554th and 555th career goals.
2. Matt Duchene.
Avalanche rookie had a goal and an assist.
3. T.J. Galiardi.
Duchene’s winger had Colorado’s other goal and five shots.
What you may have missed
Colorado’s top line of Paul Stastny, Chris Stewart and Wojtek Wolski had 10 of the Avalanche’s 26 shots on Alex Auld but couldn’t get the puck in the net.
Up next
Vs. New York Rangers, Sunday, 6 p.m.
Terry Frei, The Denver Post
