DALLAS — The Colorado Avalanche followed up its worst defensive performance of the season with a masterpiece.

Martin Necas scored midway through the third period and Scott Wedgewood made 17 saves against his former club to help the Avalanche squeeze past the rival Dallas Stars, 2-0, on Saturday afternoon at American Airlines Center.

The Avs, by winning this game in regulation, reduced their magic number to win the Central Division and the top seed in the Western Conference to two points earned or two lost by the Stars. Colorado can clinch with a victory Sunday night at Ball Arena against the St. Louis Blues.

Necas finally broke the deadlock with 9:21 remaining in the third period. Devon Toews got the puck to a wide-open Artturi Lehkonen. He had an eternity to make a play, relative to how defensive this game had been, and Lehkonen was able to feather a pass to Necas at the right post for a tap-in goal.

It was Necas’ 36th goal of the season. Necas also now has three goals and nine points in four games against the Stars this year.

Necas set up the second goal, an empty-netter by Nathan MacKinnon with 57.2 seconds left. That is MacKinnon’s 51st goal, which matches his career high from two seasons ago.

Neither team was able to find a goal in the first two periods. The first half of the opening period was actually pretty open and up-and-down, with scoring chances for both sides. The room available to make plays got smaller by the end of the first, and was non-existent at times in the middle frame.

Brent Burns was in the starting lineup for his 1,000th consecutive game played. He’s the second player in league history to reach that milestone, and is now 64 behind Phil Kessel for a share of the NHL record. The 41-year-old Burns received a nice ovation from the home crowd when he was recognized for the accomplishment during the first television timeout of the game.

Burns hasn’t missed a game since Nov. 17, 2013. Nathan MacKinnon was 19 games into his NHL career that day. Cale Makar was playing for the Northwest Calgary Athletic Association U-16 team.

FOOTNOTES: Makar missed his second game with an upper-body injury. Nicolas Roy, who practiced Friday in a non-contact jersey, was also out of the lineup. Dallas was missing three forwards, including No. 1 center Roope Hintz, and defenseman Tyler Myers.