Niemi can’t contain Avalanche as Stars fall 6-3

Two nights after a stellar debut in goal for the Dallas Stars, Antti Niemi gave up six goals in 6-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

Cody Eakin had two goals, and Mattias Janmark had his second tally in as many games for Dallas. But Niemi stopped only 22 of 28 shots after his 37-save shutout of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.

With the score tied 3-3 in the third period, John Mitchell beat Niemi from the left circle at 8:11 to give Colorado its first lead of the game. Gabriel Landeskog then gave the Avalanche a 5-3 advantage 47 seconds later.

Landeskog iced it with his second of the game and third of the season. He also had two assists.

Nathan MacKinnon had a goal and two assists, and Jarome Iginla and Erik Johnson also had goals for Colorado, which shook off a disappointing 5-4 loss to Minnesota on Thursday night.

Janmark gave the Stars a 1-0 lead when he beat Semyon Varlamov with a backhander 20 seconds into the first period. It was the second time in as many games the rookie scored early. He scored 1:39 into Thursday’s win over Pittsburgh.

The Avalanche tied it when MacKinnon took a pass from Alex Tanguay and beat Niemi with a backhander of his own at 9:06 of the first.

Eakin gave the Stars a 2-1 lead 1:15 later when he scored from close in. He got his second goal of the night on the power play at 8:50 of the second.

The Avalanche rallied to even it with a pair of power-play goals later in the second.

Johnson got the first one with a slap shot from the point at 14:53. Iginla tied it at 17:51 with his second goal in as many games.

This story was originally published October 11, 2015 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Niemi can’t contain Avalanche as Stars fall 6-3."