\u201cThat, to me, is just commitment,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar said of the difference. \u201cProving to your teammates that you can and you know how to play the right way and are committed to play the right way. It was completely different. It wasn\u2019t even close to being the same team.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Colorado](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TDP-Z-NECAS-2.jpg\")
Colorado Avalanche center Martin Necas (88) scores against Dallas Stars’ Casey DeSmith, left rear, as Lian Bichsel (6) looks on in the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)<\/p>\n
Necas finally broke the deadlock with 9:21 remaining in the third period. Devon Toews got the puck to a wide-open Artturi Lehkonen. He had an eternity to make a play, relative to how defensive this game had been, and Lehkonen was able to feather a pass to Necas at the right post for a tap-in goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cTight game, just the way it goes sometimes,\u201d Necas said. \u201cNice pass by (Lehkonen), right on my stick. \u2026 The schedule is so busy, sometimes it\u2019s really hard to get prepared mentally for every game. Last game, especially in our heads, we weren\u2019t ready. But, a couple days off and coming into this one, we knew it was a big one. We played really good defensively, didn\u2019t give up much.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was Necas\u2019 36th goal of the season. Necas also now has three goals and nine points in four games against the Stars this year.<\/p>\n
Necas set up the second goal, an empty-netter by Nathan MacKinnon with 57.2 seconds left. That is MacKinnon\u2019s 51st goal, which matches his career high from two seasons ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarty is an extremely gifted player,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cWhat he\u2019s doing for us, especially since the Olympic break, that confidence to go and play in the Olympics against all the best players in the world and have as big of an impact as he had, he\u2019s carried that over on the offensive side of things, but he\u2019s grown tremendously with his commitment to defend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither team was able to find a goal in the first two periods. The first half of the opening period was actually pretty open and up-and-down, with scoring chances for both sides. The room available to make plays got smaller by the end of the first, and was non-existent at times in the middle frame.<\/p>\n
Wedgewood has now been the goalie of record in all four games against the Stars this season. He\u2019s allowed just one goal in the past three<\/a>, which included relieving Mackenzie Blackwood here on March 6<\/a>. He stopped 44 of 45 shots across 166 minutes of hockey against the second-best team in the league in the past month.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like I\u2019ve got a funny track record against old teams, almost like a scorned lover,\u201d Wedgewood said. \u201cObviously, still a ton of friends over there, and I talk to them frequently. We played a great defensive game. I don\u2019t know if they had any odd-man (rushes), maybe one or two that didn\u2019t really result in shots.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen they did get it to the net, it was relatively routine.\u201d<\/p>\n Brent Burns was in the starting lineup for his 1,000th consecutive game played. He\u2019s the second player in league history to reach that milestone, and is now 64 behind Phil Kessel for a share of the NHL record. The 41-year-old Burns received a nice ovation from the home crowd when he was recognized for the accomplishment during the first television timeout of the game.<\/p>\n Burns hasn\u2019t missed a game since Nov. 17, 2013. MacKinnon was 19 games into his NHL career that day. Cale Makar was playing for the Northwest Calgary Athletic Association U-16 team.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was cool,\u201d Burns said. \u201cIt was nice to finally come and go. As it gets closer, you start thinking about it more. It was fun, with how the boys made the day. You\u2019re making memories, and these are things that I\u2019ll hopefully be able to remember.\u201d<\/p>\n FOOTNOTES: Makar missed his second game with an upper-body injury. Nicolas Roy, who practiced on Friday in a non-contact jersey, was also out of the lineup. Dallas was missing three forwards, including No. 1 center Roope Hintz, and defenseman Tyler Myers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 The Colorado Avalanche followed up its worst defensive performance of the season with a masterpiece. Martin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":235478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28999,102,104,103,3607,41601,2484,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-235477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-colorado-avalanche","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-more-avalanche-news","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Colorado](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TDP-Z-AVS-BURNS.jpg\")
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns skates against the Dallas Stars in the third period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, April 4, 2026, in Dallas. (AP Photo\/Tony Gutierrez)<\/p>\n