Colorado have scored 26 goals in their first five games and Dallas have allowed eight in theirs, and this week the two numbers run into each other twice. The Dallas Stars vs Colorado Avalanche home-and-home opens on Tuesday night at American Airlines Center and moves to Ball Arena in Denver on Wednesday, with the same 8:30 p.m. Eastern (00:30 UTC) start both nights.
Neither team arrives on a high. The Avalanche are 3-2-0 after a 6-3 home loss to Toronto on Saturday. The Stars are 2-2-1 and dropped their last game in a shootout at Pittsburgh, 2-1.
At a glance
- When: Tuesday, October 13, and Wednesday, October 14, both at 8:30 p.m. Eastern (00:30 UTC)
- Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas, then Ball Arena, Denver
- On TV: ESPN on Tuesday; TNT and truTV on Wednesday
- Records: Colorado 3-2-0 (6 points), Dallas 2-2-1 (5 points)
- Series: 2-2 in 2025-26, three of the four games settled in a shootout
- Last meeting: Colorado 2-0 in Dallas, April 4, 2026
How did the Dallas Stars vs Colorado Avalanche series go last season?
It could hardly have been closer. The four regular-season games in 2025-26 split two apiece, and three of them needed a shootout. Dallas won the first one 5-4 in Denver on October 11, 2025. Colorado answered with a 5-4 shootout win in Dallas on March 6, and the Stars took the next one 2-1, again in a shootout, at Ball Arena on March 18.
The only game decided in regulation was the last. On April 4 the Avalanche won 2-0 at American Airlines Center, the one time in four meetings that a team was held without a goal.
Across the whole regular season Colorado finished 55-16-11 with 121 points and Dallas 50-20-12 with 112. The spring went differently for each. The Stars went out in the first round, beaten 4-2 by Minnesota. The Avalanche swept Los Angeles, beat Minnesota 4-1 and were then swept by Vegas in the third round.
Who has the better start to 2026-27?
The two clubs have played the same number of games and are a point apart, but they got there in opposite ways. Colorado's wins came by 8-4 over Los Angeles, 6-1 over St. Louis and 7-3 at Calgary. Its losses were 3-2 at Winnipeg and 6-3 to Toronto. Dallas lost 4-0 to St. Louis in its opener and 2-1 at Nashville, then beat San Jose 5-0 and Buffalo 4-0 on the road before the shootout loss in Pittsburgh.
| First five games | Colorado | Dallas |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 3-2-0 | 2-2-1 |
| Points | 6 | 5 |
| Goals for | 26 | 11 |
| Goals against | 17 | 8 |
| Goals for per game | 5.2 | 2.2 |
| Goals against per game | 3.4 | 1.6 |
| Shutout wins | 0 | 2 |
| 2025-26 points | 121 | 112 |
Colorado's games have averaged 8.6 total goals. Dallas games have averaged 3.8. Three of the Stars' five games ended with one side on zero, and in a fourth the Stars scored once in 65 minutes before losing the shootout.
Who is carrying each team so far?
For Colorado it is Nathan MacKinnon. ESPN has him at five goals and five assists, 10 points in five games, top of the Avalanche in all three columns. That is two points a night on a team that has had 26 goals to share out.
The Dallas leader is Mikko Rantanen with two goals and four assists for six points, also first on his team in goals, assists and points. On a team that has scored 11 times, he has been in on more than half of them.
Both rosters have players on injured reserve. ESPN lists Matt Duchene, Harrison Scott, Luke Krys and Cameron Hughes for Dallas, and Logan O'Connor and Georgii Merkulov for Colorado.
What does the 2025 playoff series still say about this matchup?
The most recent time these two met with something real at stake was April and May of 2025, and that first-round series went the distance. Colorado won Game 1 in Dallas 5-1. The Stars then won Game 2 at home 4-3 and Game 3 in Denver 2-1, both in overtime, to take the lead in the series. Colorado took Games 4 and 6 at home by 4-0 and 7-4, Dallas won Game 5 by 6-2, and the Stars closed it out with a 4-2 win in Game 7 at American Airlines Center on May 3.
Home ice decided five of the seven games. Two went to overtime, and the margins in the other five were all two goals or more. Put that next to last season's run of three shootouts and you have a matchup that has swung between tight and lopsided for two years.
Two arenas, same slot, different channels
Tuesday's game in Dallas is the opener of the pair and is on ESPN. On Wednesday the teams fly to Denver for the rematch at Ball Arena, which TNT and truTV carry. Both games start at 8:30 p.m. Eastern (00:30 UTC). After that the schedules split again: Dallas goes on to Chicago, and Colorado stays home to face Pittsburgh.
Four points in mid-October will not settle much. The two nights will show something else, though: whether a Colorado attack scoring 5.2 goals a game keeps going against a team allowing 1.6, and whether those Dallas shutouts against San Jose and Buffalo hold up against a stronger offense.
On Buffstreams both games are on the NHL page with each start shown on your own clock. Tuesday's game page in Dallas and Wednesday's game page in Denver open from there.
