AVALANCHE: Colorado grabs West’s eighth and final playoff spot with 3-1 victory against Stars in Dallas.

DALLAS» Philipp Grubauer made a season-high 44 saves, including 23 in the third period, defensemen Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie scored goals and the Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Thursday night to make the Western Conference playoff race even tighter.

Grubauer has allowed only two goals while facing 104 shots and carrying Colorado on a three-game winning streak.

Carl Soderberg added an empty-net goal with 49 seconds left for the final margin, helping the Avalanche leapfrog idle Minnesota for eighth place in the conference standings. Colorado took a tiebreaker lead over Arizona, which lost Thursday, for the second wild card. Colorado and Arizona have 78 points each, and the Avalanche currently would advance based on a better goal differential. The Coyotes will play at Colorado on March 29.

Tyler Seguin scored the lone goal for Dallas with 5:01 to play. Goalie Ben Bishop’s personal winning streak ended at six games.

Dallas retained the first wild card by a four-point margin but fell four points behind thirdplace St. Louis, a winning team on Thursday, in the Central Division.

The Stars killed the only power plays in a scoreless first period.

On the first power play five minutes in, the Avalanche had only one shot on goal. Shortly afterward, Bishop stopped two inclose attempts by Tyson Jost. Less than a minute later, Bishop foiled a breakaway by Nathan MacKinnon by saving a wrist shot and MacKinnon’s rebound attempt.

Colorado outshot the Stars 13-9 in the first.

Momentum shifted in Dallas’ direction in the second period until the Avalanche scored at 17:20. Samuel Girard sent a pass to Johnson high in the left faceoff circle. Johnson one-timed a slap shot inside the left goalpost.

After two periods, the shots were even at 21.

Barrie scored at 5:19 of the third, sending a wrist shot from the top of the right circle in off the left post.

Seguin, frustrated by Grubauer on close-in shots, finally scored from the outside edge of the right circle.

Sam Hodde, The Associated Press Colorado left wing Matt Calvert skates with the puck in front of Stars center Tyler Seguin during the first period Thursday night in Dallas.