Colorado Avalanche (42-20-8, second in the Central Division during the regular season) vs. Dallas Stars (37-24-8, third in the Central Division during the regular season)
Edmonton, Alberta; Friday, 10 p.m. EDT
WESTERN CONFERENCE SECOND ROUND: Dallas leads series 2-0
BOTTOM LINE: The Dallas Stars face the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference second round with a 2-0 lead in the series. The teams meet Friday for the seventh time this season. The Stars won the last meeting 5-2.
The Stars are 12-9-3 against opponents in the Central Division. Dallas has scored 42 power-play goals, converting on 21.1% of chances.
The Avalanche are 10-8-2 against the rest of their division. Colorado ranks second in the Western Conference averaging 5.7 assists per game, led by Nathan MacKinnon with 0.8.
TOP PERFORMERS: Miro Heiskanen leads the Stars with a plus-14 in 68 games this season. Denis Gurianov has six goals and two assists over the last 10 games for Dallas.
MacKinnon leads the Avalanche with 35 goals and has 93 points. Nazem Kadri has six goals and six assists over the last 10 games for Colorado.
DURING THE PLAYOFFS: Stars: Averaging 3.2 goals, 5.4 assists, 3.7 penalties and 7.9 penalty minutes while giving up 2.9 goals per game with a .909 save percentage.
Avalanche: Averaging 3.6 goals, 6.5 assists, 3.5 penalties and 7.0 penalty minutes while giving up 2.3 goals per game with a .908 save percentage.
INJURIES: Stars: Stephen Johns: out (undisclosed), Ben Bishop: out (undisclosed).
Avalanche: Matt Calvert: out (undisclosed), Philipp Grubauer: out indefinitely (leg), Erik Johnson: out indefinitely (undisclsoed).
___
The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by , and data from ,.
