Martin Necas, great defense helps Avalanche smother rival Stars in 2-0 win

Corey Masisak, The Denver Post on Apr 4, 2026

Published in Hockey

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DALLAS — The Colorado Avalanche followed up its worst defensive performance of the season with a masterpiece.

Martin Necas scored midway through the third period and Scott Wedgewood made 17 saves against his former club to help the Avalanche squeeze past the rival Dallas Stars, 2-0, on Saturday afternoon at American Airlines Center.

The Avs, by winning this game in regulation, reduced their magic number to win the Central Division and the top seed in the Western Conference to two points earned or two lost by the Stars. Colorado can clinch with a victory Sunday night at Ball Arena against the St. Louis Blues.

Three nights ago, the league-worst Vancouver Canucks stunned the Avs in an 8-6 shocker. This was quite the response.

“That, to me, is just commitment,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of the difference. “Proving 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’t even close to being the same team.”

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.

“Tight game, just the way it goes sometimes,” Necas said. “Nice pass by (Lehkonen), right on my stick. … The schedule is so busy, sometimes it’s really hard to get prepared mentally for every game. Last game, especially in our heads, we weren’t ready. But, a couple days off and coming into this one, we knew it was a big one. We played really good defensively, didn’t give up much.”

It was Necas’ 36th goal of the season. Necas also now has three goals and nine points in four games against the Stars this year.

Necas set up the second goal, an empty-netter by Nathan MacKinnon with 57.2 seconds left. That is MacKinnon’s 51st goal, which matches his career high from two seasons ago.

“Marty is an extremely gifted player,” Bednar said. “What he’s 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’s carried that over on the offensive side of things, but he’s grown tremendously with his commitment to defend.”

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.

Wedgewood has now been the goalie of record in all four games against the Stars this season. He’s allowed just one goal in the past three, which included relieving Mackenzie Blackwood here on March 6. He stopped 44 of 45 shots across 166 minutes of hockey against the second-best team in the league in past month.

“It feels like I’ve got a funny track record against old teams, almost like a scorned lover,” Wedgewood said. “Obviously still a ton of friends over there and I talk to them frequently. We played a great defensive game. I don’t know if they had any odd-man (rushes), maybe one or two that didn’t really result in shots.

“When they did get it to the net, it was relatively routine.”

Brent Burns was in the starting lineup for his 1,000th consecutive game played. He’s 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.

Burns hasn’t 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.

“It was cool,” Burns said. “It 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’re making memories, and these are things that I’ll hopefully be able to remember.”

Footnotes

Makar missed his second game with an upper-body injury. Nicolas Roy, who practiced 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.