Philipp Grubauer stopped 44 shots, Erik Johnson scored on his 31st birthday and the Colorado Avalanche beat the host Dallas Stars 3-1 on Thursday night.

Tyson Barrie and Carl Soderberg also had goals, and Sam Girard had two assists for the Avalanche. Colorado (33-29-12) has won three in a row and moved into a tie with Arizona for the second wild card with 78 points. The Coyotes lost to Florida 4-2 on Thursday night.

Colorado suffered a potentially serious loss when second leading scorer Mikko Rantanen left the game late in the third period holding his hip after a big check and did not return.

Tyler Seguin scored, and Ben Bishop had 29 saves for Dallas. The Stars (38-30-6, 82 points) hold the first wild card in the Western Conference but are now four points behind St. Louis for third place in the Central Division, with the Blues beating Detroit on Thursday.

Johnson broke a scoreless game late in the second period. Girard skated into the middle of the zone and feathered a pass to Johnson, whose one-timer beat Bishop on the short side at 17:20.

It was his sixth of the season.

It stayed that way until early in the third period when Barrie scored. He got the puck from Girard as he entered the zone, and his shot to the far post beat Bishop to make it 2-0 at 5:19.

The goal, Barrie's fourth in the last three games, was the 72nd of his career and tied him with Sandis Ozolinsh for most by a Colorado defenseman. It also extended Barrie's goal streak to three games, which is a career best.

Grubauer, who has started the last three games for Colorado, has a 0.67 goals-against average in that span. He has three shutouts in his last six starts and just missed on his fourth.

The Stars made it close when Seguin tipped in a shot by John Klingberg past Grubauer with 14:59 left.

Bishop came off for an extra skater with 1:28 left, and Soderberg scored into the empty net at 19:11.

--Field Level Media