Paul Stastny's second goal of the game 3:36 into overtime gave the Colorado Avalanche and troubled goalie Semyon Varlamov a 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars on Friday night.
Stastny fired a shot from the left circle past goalie Kari Lehtonen to beat the Stars, who had rallied from a 2-0 deficit. The goal was his fourth of the season.
Dallas had scored twice in the third period against Varlamov, who two days earlier spent the night in jail because of an alleged assault against his girlfriend.
Stastny had made it 1-0 at 8:22 of the first period. Gabriel Landeskog doubled Colorado's lead with 1:19 left in the second.
The Stars, who recorded just 12 shots in the first two periods, began their comeback with Alex Goligoski's goal at 3:57 of the third period. Tyler Seguin tied it at 16:31.
Dallas (5-6-2) had scored just three third-period goals in its first 12 games, and hadn't rallied in the final frame to win any of them.
The Stars outshot the Avalanche 16-8 in the third period on Friday.
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Colorado (11-1) took a 1-0 lead just 8:22 into the game. Stastny put the puck in from just to the right of the net off assists from Alex Tanguay and Jan Hejda.
That goal came barely 2 minutes after Dallas turned aside the Avalanche's 5-on-3 power play.
Despite recording the final three shots of the period, the Stars were outshot 13-4.
Dallas kept pressure on Varlamov early in the second, especially during a power play midway through the period. His toughest stop was on a close-in attempt by Alex Chiasson.
Colorado had the best second-period scoring chances with near breakaways by P.A. Parenteau and Ryan O'Reilly on a power play.
The Avalanche finally broke through late when Nathan MacKinnon took the puck away in the neutral zone and passed it behind him to Landeskog.
The Avalanche captain fired a shot from the left circle across Lehtonen's body and past his glove for his fourth goal.
The Stars outshot Colorado in the period 8-5 but had nothing to show for the effort but a 2-0 deficit.
They fared better in the third.
Seguin skated through the left circle, turned and passed back to Goligoski at the top of the circle. The defenseman drilled a shot into the top of the net for his second goal. Seguin's tying goal came on a blast from the top of the slot after Dallas had recovered the puck in the neutral zone.
The 25-year-old Varlamov improved to 8-1 for the Central Division-leading Avalanche.
A judge in Denver had ruled Thursday that Varlamov could travel with the team to Dallas. He posted a $5,000 bond, and now has a restraining order that prevents him from seeing his girlfriend.
NOTES: Stars center Ryan Garbutt served the final game of his five-game suspension for a charging penalty on Oct. 20 at Anaheim. . MacKinnon, Colorado's first-round draft pick, had two assists to take the team lead with eight.
