Dallas Stars 6, Colorado Avalanche 1

by Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — Stars forward Jussi Jokinen's goal scoring numbers weren't all that impressive through the first 17 games of the season. He had just three. He did something about that Friday night, scoring four goals in leading the Stars to a 6-1 rout of the Colorado Avalanche at the American Airlines Center.

The win snapped a three-game overall losing streak and a four-game losing streak at the American Airlines Center for the Stars.

Jokinen scored two goals on the on the power play and two more at even strength. The goals were his first on home this season and it was his first NHL career hat trick.

"I had a good feeling before the game and to get that first one goal at home all year, that gave me a little bit of confidence," Jokinen said. "Two really good goals, two lucky bounces."

Said Stars coach Dave Tippett: "He had four goals in six-and-a-half minutes. I was mad at myself for not getting him on the ice more."

Jeff Halpern and Mike Ribeiro also scored Dallas, which got four assists from Sergei Zubov and a 17-save performance from Mike Smith, who was making his first start since November 2.

"I thought it was a great game by the whole team," said Halpern. "Our team made great reads and kept the puck in the offensive zone. ... Every line could have had about five tonight. You have games like that."

The Stars, who improved to 8-7-4 on the season, were 2-2 on the power play in the game and a perfect 3-3 on the penalty kill.

"It was a solid game for us. It was a game we were looking to build some momentum on," said Tippett. "I thought were solid right through. I thought our special teams were very good."

The Stars cashed in on their first power play and their first shot of the game at 4:22 of the first to take a 1-0 lead. Sergei Zubov hit Jokinen with a pass at the Colorado blue line and the Dallas forward got behind the Avalanche defense, beating Avs goalie Jose Theodore with a wrist shot from the left circle.

The Stars had a couple of other good chances, but Theodore made nice stops point blank chances by Jere Lehtinen and Matt Niskanen, and defenseman Brett Clark blocked a Lehtinen attempt at a wide-open net.

Smith stopped four shots in the period, including a save on a point blank shot by Joe Sakic. Smith stopped Andrew Brunette's chance on a three-on-one rush by the Avalanche early in the second, and after that the Stars rattled off four goals, including three by Jokinen, in a 7:05 span to build a 5-0 lead.

Jokinen took a pass from Antti Miettinen and beat Theodore from the bottom of the circle of the left circle at the 3:47 mark. Less than two minutes later Halpern won an offensive zone draw, went to the net and then deflected a Modano shot past Theodore at 5:11. Jokinen scored his second power play goal of the night at the 7:00 mark when he won a draw, went to the net and tapped in a Zubov pass into the net. Jokinen' potted his fourth goal of the game at the 10:52 when he scored off the rebound of a Zubov shot. That was it for Theodore, who was pulled in favor of Peter Budaj.

The Stars made it 6-0 at 14:56 of the third when Lehtinen stole the puck from Colorado defenseman Kyle Cumiskey in the corner and set up Ribeiro, who beat Budaj with a one-timer.

Colorado ruined Smith's bid for a shutout with 3:45 left when Jaroslav Hlinka scored off the rebound of an Tyler Arnason wrap-around shot.

Notes: The Stars placed defenseman Mattias Norstrom (eye) on injured reserve Friday. They recalled both forward Loui Eriksson and defenseman Mark Fistric from Iowa of the AHL.

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