DENVER — Peter DeBoer joked that coaches never really see perfect games, but he said the Dallas Stars‘ 4-1 win Saturday over the Colorado Avalanche was “as close to a perfect road game” that a team could have.

DeBoer said the Stars’ poise went a long way toward achieving that near perfection as they took a 2-1 series lead in the Western Conference semifinals.

“Coming in this situation, we knew they were going to come out guns blazing in the first period,” DeBoer said. “You knew their home record. You knew they had challenged their best players … after last game. We knew we were going to get a lot thrown at us early in that game, and our composure throughout the night I thought was outstanding.”

DeBoer’s prediction was accurate. The Avalanche broke through to finish with 11 shots on goal in an opening frame that saw them largely control possession with a 68.1% shot share, according to Natural Stat Trick. Yet it was the Stars who took a 1-0 lead because of a goal from rookie forward Logan Stankoven with 1:21 remaining in the first period and a perfect frame from goaltender Jake Oettinger.

Oettinger, who finished with 29 saves, continually found moments that kept the Avalanche from tying the score. His lone blemish came in the second, when the Avs used a more aggressive approach to attack the net. Center Nathan MacKinnon deked through Dallas’ zone before passing it to winger Mikko Rantanen, who tied the score with 9:36 remaining in the period.

Although the Avalanche have yet to hold a lead in any game this series, that hasn’t totally prevented them from winning games. The Stars took a 3-0 lead in Game 1 only for the Avalanche to score four straight goals, with the winner coming via Miles Wood in overtime. Game 2 witnessed the Stars create a four-goal lead, only for the Avs to cut it to 4-3 with less than three minutes remaining in the third — before Esa Lindell‘s empty-netter tied the series at a game apiece.

But Rantanen’s goal was the closest the Avs would get to mounting a potential comeback on Saturday. Stars forward Tyler Seguin scored less than five minutes later for a 2-1 lead.

“We knew coming into this rink how these guys play, and we also know how we play on the road,” Seguin said. “We knew it’d be a big challenge, and the next game is going to be a bigger challenge. But the playoffs are about those moments and getting the right bounces at times, as well.”

The Stars found comfort playing with a one-goal lead in a second period that saw the Avalanche have a consecutive frame with 11 shots while having a shot share that was at 67%. An example of that comfort came when MacKinnon and Rantanen were cycling in a one-two exchange that ended with Rantanen getting a point-blank shot on net that Oettinger contained. The save came around 90 seconds before Seguin’s goal gave the Stars the lead.

“I think it’s learning from our mistakes, and we did that,” Oettinger said. “I think that was one of the best third periods we’ve played this season. Just being smart and not taking penalties. Staying on the defensive side of the puck, and I don’t think they had many scoring chances in the third.”

After seeing 22 scoring chances between the first two periods, the Avalanche were held to just six in 5-on-5 play in the third.

The Stars’ blueprint Saturday came down to four things: limiting the Avs to fewer scoring chances in the third; the ability to hold onto a lead; keeping the Avs 0-for-3 on the power play; and holding on long enough for Seguin and Stankoven to score a pair of empty-net goals to effectively end the game.

A similar performance Monday in Game 4 could see the Stars return to Dallas with a chance to end the series in five games and return to the Western Conference final for a consecutive season.

And while DeBoer called it close to perfect, Stankoven believed there were still areas where the Stars could have improved.

“I thought the first part of our game, we didn’t really play to our best,” Stankoven said. “But it got a little bit better as the game went on. I don’t think we were perfect whatsoever, and I think we can keep on building.”

RALEIGH, N.C. — The Carolina Hurricanes turned their last stand into a season-extending victory. Incredibly, it was the struggling power play that got them there.

Brady Skjei scored on the power play with 3:11 left to help the Hurricanes beat the New York Rangers 4-3 on Saturday night, staving off a sweep by winning Game 4 of the second-round playoff series.

Skjei’s shot from the the point came off a feed from Teuvo Teravainen, with the puck zipping past Igor Shesterkin to catch the upper-right corner of the goal and bang into the net. That was Carolina’s first goal with the man advantage in 17 tries in the series, and it finally pushed Carolina ahead for good on a night when the Hurricanes squandered a two-goal lead.

No matter, though. The Hurricanes survived to fight another day in the NHL playoffs.

“I don’t care,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said of whether there was extra significance to getting the winner with the man advantage. “Not tonight. We’ve just got to get Ws at this time of year.”

The Rangers get another closeout chance Monday night with the 3-1 lead when the series returns to Madison Square Garden for Game 5.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stefan Noesen and Sebastian Aho each scored for Carolina, while Frederik Andersen finished with 22 saves as the Hurricanes try to become the fifth team to rally from a 3-0 deficit to win a playoff series and first since 2014.

Everything started with Carolina showing plenty of jump in the first period, running out to 2-0 and 3-1 leads to build momentum.

“Obviously we played a lot of aggression,” said Aho, who finished a feed from Jake Guentzel from near the slot for the 3-1 lead with 4:31 left in the first period. “We kind of did what we needed to do. That was a strong start. We want to do that again (in Game 5).”

The Hurricanes tweaked their power-play unit to put Skjei on the top group. And roughly 30 seconds after a tripping penalty by Ryan Lindgren, Skjei converted the winner to send Teravainen and Aho rushing over to hug him and have a tense home crowd roaring in gleeful relief, even if Skjei felt “definitely celebration” instead.

“I feel like going into every game, you try to feel confident and feel you can be the guy to do it,” Skjei said. “Obviously it doesn’t happen every night or that often. But that’s kind of our mindset going forward here, just win the day.”

Will Cuylle, Barclay Goodrow and Alexis Lafreniere scored for the Rangers, while Shesterkin finished with 27 saves.

“It’s tough, we dug ourselves a hole early,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t think it was because we weren’t ready to play. … We’ve got to come out a little bit sharper than that.

“We were competing, we were working, we were trying to do our job offensively. But there’s some things defensively that I thought we could’ve been a little bit better in the first period.”

New York had won their first seven playoff games after sweeping Washington in Round 1 and taking the first three of this series, and had a chance to become the first team to reach 8-0 in a postseason since Edmonton won its first nine games on the way to claiming the Stanley Cup in 1985.

Lafreniere had the Rangers within reach of that when he capitalized on a mistake by Andersen, who let his left skate extend past the post as Lafreniere skated in on the right side. As he skated toward the boards, Lafreniere bounced the puck off Andersen’s left hip, then into the net for the 3-3 tie at 2:04 of the third period that deflated the home crowd.

The series began with the potential for heavy drama considering the Metropolitan Division-winning Rangers also won the Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season team, while the Hurricanes — in the playoffs for the sixth straight season — finished three points behind.

The tight finishes have been there with the Rangers winning 4-3 in both Game 1 and 2 — the latter in double overtime — and then taking Game 3 in Raleigh on Artemi Panarin’s OT score for the 3-2 win. But the Rangers had been winning the special-teams battle in a landslide, outscoring the Hurricanes 5-0 with four power-play goals and a shorthanded score while Carolina’s No. 2-ranked regular-season power play entered Saturday at 0 for 15 in the series.

Carolina came up empty on its first power play, but Skjei finally gave the Hurricanes a desperately needed breakthrough.

“I thought the penalty kill was still good,” Laviolette said. “They took a shot from the point, he hammered it, it had eyes. It was a tough corner shot, traffic in front of the net. There was a lot going on there.”

PRAGUE — Columbus Blue Jackets star Johnny Gaudreau had a goal and an assist, and the United States rebounded from a 5-2 loss to Sweden by routing last year’s runner-up Germany 6-1 at the ice hockey world championship on Saturday.

Michael Kesselring had a goal and an assist, and captain Brady Tkachuk, Luke Hughes, Trevor Zegras and Michael Eyssimont added goals in a Group B game in Ostrava.

Goaltender Alex Lyon stopped all 14 German shots he faced before he was substituted for Trey Augustine 3:27 into the middle period because of an injury. Augustine made 11 saves.

Tkachuk put the Americans up 1-0 by using his stick to deflect in a shot from the point by Kesselring. Defenseman Kesselring made it 2-0 on a breakaway.

Gaudreau, who had an assist in 23 minutes of action in the loss to Sweden, stretched the lead midway through the second period on a power play. Yasin Ehliz scored the lone goal for Germany then Hughes made it 4-1 with three seconds remaining in the frame.

Zegras added another from a power play in the final period and Eyssimont finished off the rout.

In Group A in Prague, Connor Bedard scored twice and Canada opened its title defense by beating newcomer Britain 4-2.

Bedard, 18, coming off a great rookie season with the Chicago Blackhawks, netted twice in a four-minute span of the second period to put the Group A game in Prague out of reach.

Canada had to rally from a goal down despite outshooting Britain 12-3 in the opening period and 34-15 overall.

Liam Kirk put Britain 1-0 ahead on a power play eight minutes into the game, but the lead lasted just 30 seconds as Michael Bunting found the back of the net from the point.

Brandon Hagel put the defending champions ahead 5:45 into the second period with a shot high into the roof of the net.

Then it was Bedard’s turn.

The teenager beat goaltender Jackson Whistle (30 saves) midway through the frame for his first goal at the senior worlds. He made it 4-1 after Nick Paul fed him with a perfect pass.

Ben O’Connor scored in the third period for Britain.

Also in Group A, the host Czech Republic came back from 3-1 down to overcome Norway 6-3 for the second straight win, while Denmark cruised past Austria 5-1.

In Ostrava, Kazakhstan defeated France 3-1 in their opening Group B game.

In another Group B match, last year’s bronze medalist Latvia had to dig deep to overcome another newcomer in the top division, Poland, 5-4 in overtime. Latvia captain Kaspars Daugavins scored the winner with 1:31 remaining.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.