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Home improvementAvs stars 8-game home stand with 3-0 shutout victory over Dallas,

Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 24 saves for his first shutout in two seasons and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 3-0 Friday night.

Paul Stastny and Chuck Kobasew each had a goal and Matt Duchene scored an empty-net goal with 4.5 seconds left to seal the win and snap Colorado's three-game skid.

Giguere's last shutout was against Ottawa on Feb. 6, 2010, when he was with Toronto.

Kari Lehtonen had 42 saves for Dallas, which has lost four straight.

Colorado has struggled at home this season, winning for just the third time in 10 games.

Kobasew gave Colorado a 1-0 lead when he redirected a shot by Ryan Wilson 6:10 into the first period. It was Kobasew's third goal of the season.

The Avalanche nearly made it a two-goal lead early in the third when Gabriel Landeskog was in front of Lehtonen near the end of a power play. Lehtonen stuffed the rookie's shot and the rebound shot by Ryan O'Reilly to keep it 1-0.

They finally got the insurance goal on a power play when Stastny poked in a rebound with 5:26 left for his sixth goal of the season.

The Avalanche lost 1-0 in Minnesota on Thursday night, but 24 hours later handed Dallas its second shutout loss on consecutive nights. The Stars lost to Florida 6-0 at home Thursday.

Dallas couldn't generate much against Colorado. The Stars had nine in the third period when they tried to get the equalizer. The Stars took three penalties in the game's final seven minutes to make any comeback even tougher.

The Avalanche outshot the Stars 16-4 in the first period and 33-15 through two frames. Colorado had the only power play through the first 40 minutes. Dallas got its first man-advantage opportunity with 15:43 left in the game but couldn't get a shot on net.

Notes: Friday's game kicked off an eight-game homestand for Colorado, its longest continuous homestand since moving to Denver. The Avalanche had a nine-game homestand in 2001-02 that wrapped around the Winter Olympics.

-by Associated Press-


Eurolanche.com, Worldwide, eurolanche@eurolanche.com
19/11/2011 - 06:03