Postgame Notes & Quotes Colorado Avalanche 5, Dallas Stars 3 Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Matt Nieto registered his first career hat trick.
With tonight’s win, Colorado evened the season series against Dallas and is 1-1-0 against its Central Division foe. The Avalanche has won nine of its last 11 meetings at home against the Stars.
Blake Comeau matched a career high with three assists, the second time in his career he’s recorded three helpers (March 14, 2010 vs. Toronto).
With an assist on Mark Barberio’s second-period marker, Tyson Barrie extended his point streak to six games (1g, 5a), setting a new career high. Barrie’s streak matches the longest by an NHL defenseman this season, and the blueliner has now totaled 19 points (5g, 14a) in 19 career games against Dallas.
With two points on the night (1g, 1a), Gabriel Landeskog has now registered 23 career points against the Stars (24 games played), his highest total against a single opponent.
Defenseman Mark Barberio skated in his 200th NHL game and scored his first career game-winning goal.
The Avalanche held Dallas scoreless on three power-play opportunities, the second- straight game Colorado has not allowed a goal on the penalty kill. The Avs have allowed just three power-play goals in their last seven contests (23-26, 88.5%).
Matt Duchene notched his 249th career assist, surpassing Valeri Kamensky to take sole possession of 10th place on the franchise’s all-time assist list.
Nieto’s empty-net goal in the third period was Colorado’s sixth empty netter of the season, which leads the NHL.
Tyler Seguin extended his point streak to five games and has tallied eight points (4g, 4a) in that span.
Colorado RW Matt Nieto On His First Career Hat Trick: “It’s awesome. The team had a couple losses there and to come back in our building and get back in the win column and for me to be able to contribute, it’s a good feeling.”
On Getting The Win: “That’s huge for our group. We are going to be tested. You know, every team in the league is going to have a push, especially in the third period. So for us to handle that, they are a very dangerous team. To be able to come out of that with a win, it’s huge.”
Colorado LW Blake Comeau On His Line’s Chemistry: “We’ve had some chemistry this year when we’ve been together. Carl (Colorado C Carl Soderberg) and Nietsy (Colorado RW Matt Nieto) are two guys that are easy to play with. They both work really hard, they both pay a lot of attention to detail. You know, Nietsy’s goals were just going to the hard areas tonight and he was rewarded. So, it was nice to contribute. I feel like the teams that are successful in this league have four lines that can roll. I think everyone won the matchups tonight, did a good job.”
On Tonight’s Game: “I thought we had a good start. A little bit in the third, we had a few puck decisions where we turned it over. You know, that’s not an easy team to play against. They play really well defensively, they have some big bodies and they play hard. That was a good job by us coming out on top on those grinding kind of games.”
Colorado G Semyon Varlamov On Playing Against Dallas: “This team is very skilled, they are very dangerous. On the power play, they play very well [and in the] defensive zone, so we knew that and we tried to play solid in front of the net. Like I said, we played a good two periods, [but we] have to work on playing a full game.”
On Staying Focused In Net: “I know my job, I know what I have to do, I know the expectations for me and then for Berns (Colorado G Jonathan Bernier). For the goalies, we have to be ready to play every game. You know, [in] this league, it’s tough to play, every team is battling for the playoffs. So, just need to be ready every game.”
Dallas G Ben Bishop On The First Two Periods: “I thought we came out in the first period and we did some good things, we did some bad things, but we weren’t really taking control. We had a four-minute power play that we could have grabbed the game there but we were fine. It was 1-1 after the first period on the road. They got that lucky one behind the net, things happen like that. We did a great job at responding and got another one. Like I said there was a lot of hockey left. There was a lot of fight in this locker room, the game wasn’t over.”
On Making Adjustments: “We just talked about being better. We need to get off to a better start. We expect better from ourselves in this locker room, I expect better from myself tonight. We just have to hold ourselves accountable here and obviously this is the first game and we have a lot of hockey left on this road [trip]. We have a hungry team in Edmonton that’s chomping at the bit right now so we have to forget about this one and get ready for Edmonton.”
Dallas D Marc Methot On The First Two Periods: “I thought we were lucky to get out of that first period having it being tied and actually, we probably should have capitalized right after that and when we came out during the second, I don’t think we did. It seemed like a little bit of an uphill battle for whatever reason and then obviously in the third, we get some momentum, but it’s easy to say that when the other team is leading by three goals you get a little casual sometimes maybe but I think our push was just a little too late.”
On How To Regroup: “It’s one game. You can’t be too negative, but you do have to take it serious and understand that we can’t afford to let games like this slip by because it’s going to haunt us later on in the season. You don’t want to be in March and regret all the games that we are letting slip away. We know what kind of group we have in this team and there’s no excuse for the kind of game we had tonight.”