DENVER -- Joe Colborne had three goals for his first career hat trick and Colorado beat the Dallas Stars 6-5 on Saturday night to give Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar a win in his NHL debut.

Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie and Carl Soderberg also had goals for the Avalanche, who scored five straight in the first and second periods before holding on in the third. Semyon Varlamov had nine of his 23 saves in the final 20 minutes.

Tyler Seguin had two goals and an assist and Jamie Benn and Devon Shore each had a goal and an assist each for the Stars. Brett Ritchie also scored for Dallas.

Stars goaltender Antii Niemi struggled after a strong performance Thursday. He allowed five goals on 20 shots before being replaced by Kari Lehtonen at 6:05 of the second period. Lehtonen finished with 13 saves.

The teams combined for nine goals in the first 36 minutes of the game and traded goals in the third. Barrie gave Colorado a 6-4 lead at 13:57 but Ritchie answered 56 seconds later to get it back to a one-goal game.

Dallas got a power play in the last two minutes and pulled Lehtonen with 46 seconds remaining but couldn't get the equalizer.

The Stars got the high-scoring game going with two goals in the first seven minutes. Seguin scored a power-play goal 43 seconds in and Shore scored later in the period.

Colborne tied it with two power-play goals in the first period, and he tipped Nikita Zadorov's shot from the point at 7:05 of the second period to complete the hat trick and give Colorado a seemingly comfortable 5-2 lead.

Soderberg had scored on a breakaway goal 51 seconds into period and MacKinnon on a rebound 57 seconds before Colborne's third goal to put Colorado on top.

The Stars cut the lead to 5-4 heading into the third. Benn tipped in Seguin's shot at 11:48 for a power play goal and then Seguin scored his second of the game and third overall at 16:02.

NOTES: Colorado RW Mikko Rantanen was sent to San Antonio of the AHL on Friday. Rantanen suffered an ankle injury in Sept. 17 rookie game and he didn't play in any Colorado's six exhibition games, so the demotion is more of a rehab assignment for the rookie. ... Dallas RW Ales Hemsky (groin), C Cody Eakin (knee) and C Mattias Janmark (knee) are on injured reserve. ... Avalanche D Eric Gelinas and LW Cody McLeod were healthy scratches. C John Mitchell (hip) was also scratched. ... D Esa Lindell, D Jamie Olekisak and LW Curtis McKenzie were healthy scratches for the Stars. ... Saturday was the sixth time Colorado has opened a season against Dallas.