Colorado made costly mistakes which ended in a loss to a Central Division rival.
Despite the Colorado Avalanche's 7-4 loss to the Dallas Stars, head coach Jared Bednar said Alexandar Georgiev played a "great" game.
The Avs' netminder made 30 saves and was challenged right out of the gate. But he came up big and, with the exception of one goal, kept his team in the game.
"Have to play a full 60, I don't know. The start was good, they managed to score a couple ... I have to accept what the game comes to me," Georgiev said after the loss. "I for sure wish it was five blue line shots where I see everything but of course what happened and they had a strong start and I had to make a couple big saves and be sharp from the start."
Avalanche defenseman Sean Walker blasted a shot from the blue line past Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger two minutes into the game to put the Avalanche on the board first.
Stars forward Matt Duchene caught a turnover from Samuel Girard, got a breakaway and challenged Georgiev — which drew the Avs' goalie out of the crease and tied the game at 2:49 in the first period.
The Stars' second goal came from Jamie Benn with less than a minute remaining in the opening frame.
Artturi Lehkonen brought the Avs within one on a power-play at 15:22 in the second period.
Stars forwards Roope Hintz and Tyler Seguin put the Stars up by two during a four-minute double minor high-sticking call on Walker. Dallas went up 5-2 from a Mason Marchment goal at 2:50 in the second.
"I think probably one that he (Georgiev) liked back was the one that squeaked through him on the quick slip to the middle on the power play. But I mean he was good. The quality, well and quantity — like the defending breakdowns that we had, we did some dumb stuff today," Bednar said. "And they all led to really good scoring chances against and then we got beat off the walls a few times, created some more scoring chances against. We look like — for a while there in the game we're leaving early without the puck and they played underneath us, checked the puck back and got some good scoring chances too. But all in all, I thought he had a good night. We just weren't good enough defensively."
Brandon Duhaime scored his first goal in burgundy and blue with less than a minute left in the middle frame to keep the Avs alive.
Jonathan Drouin scored goal No. 4 halfway through the third which tied his career-high season points (53) and brought the game within one for Colorado.
Johnston scored with less than five minutes left in the game and Seguin finished with an empty-netter.
The team was without elite top forward Mikko Rantanen and mid-six forward Miles Wood which were noticeable absences.
"Of course that's gonna hurt. I thought the guys that played in his (Wood's) spot did a really good job," Zach Parise said. "But there's you know, there's just no replacing Mikko. He does a lot for this team."
Both injured forwards are day-to-day but unknown whether they will return for the Avs' next matchup against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night at Ball Arena.
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