LATE SATURDAY

Stars 5, Avalanche 3

The top line for the Dallas Stars finally came to life, stepping up after a quick turnaround for an impressive start in round two of the Western Conference playoffs.

Stars captain Jamie Benn, Alexander Radulov and Tyler Seguin set the tone early, and piled on after that, in a 5-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night.

“They definitely led the way for us tonight. I felt like the rest of the group followed,” said Blake Comeau, who had the goal that put Dallas ahead to stay. “Great game for them … that’s what we expect.”

Seguin opened the scoring with his first goal of this postseason, taking Benn’s pass from behind the net only four minutes into the game.

Two nights after the top trio had no points when the Stars scored seven goals in the finale of their opening series against Calgary, Radulov had two goals and an assist, Benn had three assists and Seguin added a helper to his opening goal.

“When that line scores an early goal like that, that’s huge. And then you’ve just got to let them go,” Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness said. “We’re not going anywhere without our top players.”

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Monday night.

Hart Trophy finalist Nathan Mackinnon had two goals and an assist for the Avalanche, who lost top goalie Philipp Grubauer to an injury early in the second period.

“Obviously, he’s in a position there where he tweaked something and he’s unable to continue,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “So that’s already bad news. Time will tell how long he’s going to be out. I have no idea at this point.”

STARS 5, AVALANCHE 3

Dallas 311—5 Colorado 120—3 First Period—1, Dallas, Seguin 1 (Radulov, Benn), 4:00. 2, Colorado, Mackinnon 5 (Rantanen, Landeskog), 5:04. 3, Dallas, Comeau 1 (Oleksiak, Heiskanen), 9:51. 4, Dallas, Radulov 3 (Faksa, Benn), 16:28. Penalties_graves, Col (High Sticking), 7:19; Janmark, Dal (Hooking), 17:19.

Second Period—5, Colorado, Landeskog 1 (Girard, Mackinnon), 4:36. 6, Dallas, Radulov 4 (Seguin, Benn), 9:09. 7, Colorado, Mackinnon 6 (Kadri, Girard), 18:29. Penalties_kadri, Col (Tripping), 1:16; Graves, Col (Tripping), 17:25; Gurianov, Dal (High Sticking), 17:25.

Third Period—8, Dallas, Hintz 1 (Klingberg, Dickinson), 8:47. Penalties_none.

Shots on Goal—dallas 8-16-6_30. Colorado 13-10-8_31. Power-play opportunities—dallas 0 of 2; Colorado 0 of 1. Goalies—dallas, Khudobin 5-3-0 (31 shots-28 saves). Colorado, Francouz 1-2-0 (20-18), Colorado, Grubauer 5-0-1 (10-7).

A—0 (18,641). T_2:36.

Referees—steve Kozari, Kelly Sutherland. Linesmen_scott Cherrey, Kiel Murchison.

PERRY NELSON/USA TODAY SPORTS Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz (39) makes a save against Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak (2) as Avalanche center Nazem Kadri (91) looks on during the second period on Saturday.