Familiar Avalanche issues, controllable and not, a problem again in loss to Stars

DALLAS — Season-long issues, both in the Colorado Avalanche’s control and not, were big problems again Friday night.

The Dallas Stars scored multiple power-play goals, and the Avs lost another key player to injury in a 5-3 defeat at American Airlines Center. Issues with the penalty kill, the goaltending and defensive work in front of the netminder? Check, check and check.

There were times when it was a combination of all three. The result was a second loss in three games after the Avs had put together their best stretch of results during this injury-riddled season.

“We didn’t take care of the rush very well at times in the first and at times in the second,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You give them too many high-quality chances off the rush like that and they are going to capitalize.

“I thought our guys played hard and had good energy and fought to the end, but the difference in the game was some of those rush chances and special teams.”

The biggest issue moving forward could be the availability of defenseman Josh Manson. He missed the final 14 minutes of the second period and all of the third with an upper-body injury. Bednar did not have an update on his status after the game.

Colorado’s injury/availability crisis reached an extraordinary level, then some reinforcements arrived. But the Avs have now lost three players in a span of four games — forwards Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood and now Manson.

Other than a four-game absence and some lingering issues that Devon Toews could play through, the Avalanche defense corps had avoided the injury virus that has spread through the forwards early and often.

“Hopefully (Manson) is OK,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “He’s a big part of our back end. Him going out is what it is. We have to find a way to grind through it. I feel like relatively did a good job of that with five ‘D’ the rest of the game.”

Manson’s play has been a little up-and-down at times this season, but part of his value to the Avs is being a guy who can be a physical presence in front of the net and log heavy penalty-killing minutes. Those are two areas where the Avs need to be better, with or without Manson in the near future.

The Avalanche did make a valiant push in the third period after reaching the second intermission down by three goals. Artturi Lehkonen scored 62 seconds into the period on a feed from Nathan MacKinnon, and then Mikko Rantanen scored on a one-timer after a brilliant play from Makar.

That made it a one-score game with 11:57 remaining. The Avs stars can overpower anyone, even while shorthanded against the stingy Stars.

But the concerns from the first 40 minutes remain, and the Avs have almost certainly reached the point where waiting for healthy bodies to quell them would be a bad idea.

Dallas scored first in this game on the power play. Matt Duchene’s harmless-looking shot from the right wall turned into a scramble drill for the Avs’ PKers when it bounced off Alexandar Georgiev and kicked into the high slot. Mason Marchment fed Tyler Seguin for a shot from the left circle at 5:36 of the first.

Colorado’s power play answered later in the first. Mikko Rantanen’s first shot went off the post, and then Valeri Nichushkin was there to clean up the rebound of his second try. It was Nichushkin’s third goal and sixth point in seven games since returning from a six-month suspension.