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Smyth, Budaj lead Avalanche over Stars

Oct 2, 2008 - 4:22 AM By Derek Nagy PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- Ryan Smyth recorded his team-leading fourth goal of the preseason and Peter Budaj finished with 29 saves to give the Colorado Avalanche their third consecutive victory with a 3-1 triumph over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday.

T.J. Hensick had a goal and an assist and David Jones also tallied for Colorado, which defeated Dallas for the second time in six days and improved to 3-0-1 in the preseason.

Smyth's power-play goal snapped a scoreless tie with 82 seconds remaining in the second period after a give-and-go with teammate Paul Stastny. Smyth fed Stastny, who was just to the right goaltender Matt Climie. Stastny put the puck perfectly back on Smyth's stick, and he one-timed it into the open net for a 1-0 lead.

The Avalanche doubled their advantage 2:39 into the third period after Jones skated into the offensive zone and backhanded the puck past Climie for his first goal of the preseason.

Steve Ott halved the deficit for the Stars just 4:56 into the third period, but Hensick regained the two-goal advantage for the Avalanche after cleaning up a rebound and slipping it past Climie.

Matt Niskanen and Brad Richards set up the lone goal for Dallas, which fell to 1-4 in the preseason.