DALLAS — It was the team’s sixth game in nine nights, the second game of back-to-back nights, on the road against a rested team that had a 7-3-0 record at home. In other words, there were a lot of advance excuses for the Avalanche on Saturday night, but the team refused to take any.
On the strength of Kevin Porter’s tiebreaking shootout goal, the Avs pulled out a 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center. With five wins in those six games, the Avs improved to 12-7-1 — just two points fewer (27-25) than the torrid pace of last season’s team after 20 games — and are atop the Northwest Division.
It appeared this wouldn’t be such a tough victory, because the Avs led 3-0 in the second period and were badly outskating the Stars. But Dallas answered with three straight markers on goalie Peter Budaj, and the Avs survived a 4-on-3 overtime disadvantage for the final 39 seconds before winning the shootout 2-1 in five rounds.
“We’re real happy with that, especially with the way we came out for the first two periods,” Avs coach Joe Sacco said. “This team continues to battle. A lot of things going against us tonight, but I thought our character really stood out tonight.”
After Dallas’ Steve Ott hit the crossbar with a shootout attempt in the fifth round, Porter got the tap on the shoulder from Sacco to take the Avs’ next shot. Tied 1-1 with Colorado shooting last, Porter could win it with a goal on Kari Lehtonen, and he did with a shot upstairs. It was Porter’s second “walkoff” goal in the last week, the other being an overtime score against San Jose.
“I was a little bit nervous going into it,” Porter said. “I was just telling (Ryan) O’Reilly if I had to go, I’d be nervous, and then Coach tapped me. I just saw the opening and took a shot.”
Matt Duchene looked like he would win it on Colorado’s third shootout attempt, faking out Lehtonen, with just an easy lift of the puck needed over his pad. But Duchene stumbled a bit at the last second and didn’t get it up high enough.
Budaj, however, didn’t yield the lead. He stopped 26-of-29 shots and was victimized by one bad-luck goal with 9:58 remaining in regulation, when James Neal’s shot deflected in off the skate of Colorado’s Ryan Wilson.
“I would like to have that first goal back that they got (by Adam Burish), but otherwise I felt pretty good and I thought we played a pretty solid game overall,” Budaj said.
Milan Hejduk scored two power- play goals for the Avs on nearly identical setup passes by emerging rookie Kevin Shattenkirk. After David Jones scored an easy rebound goal at 5:30 of the second, it was 3-0 and it appeared it would be an easy night. But Dallas came on hard after that, helped along by three straight power plays.
“They were desperate in the third, and we need to still tighten some things up as a team defensively,” Du- chene said. “But I thought we battled hard and came out with a great first two periods.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
Avs Recap
The Post’s three stars
1. Milan Hejduk.
Avs winger scored two power-play goals.
2. Kevin Shattenkirk.
Assisted twice and played nearly 25 minutes for Avs.
3. James Neal.
Scored and assisted on a goal for Dallas.
What you might have missed
The Stars had won five in a row at home.
Up next
At Vancouver, Wednesday at 8 p.m.
