DENVER – Stephane Robidas believes the Stars learned a lesson Wednesday night.

In taking a 4-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche at Pepsi Center, the Stars made mistakes early in getting behind 4-1, and then battled back to mount a furious comeback that fell just short.

"The thing we have to do is look at the end of the game and realize that's the way we have to play," Robidas said. "We need to have that hunger the entire game."

But is that realistic? The Stars last season set a franchise record for games in which they came back from a two-goal deficit entering the third period to win, so they know how to be situationally motivated. Isn't this just another case of playing with nothing to lose?

"It doesn't have to be," Robidas said. "We obviously can't take all of the chances we took in the third period on a regular basis, but the hunger to get to the net, the hunting the puck, the desire to finish checks and keep plays alive ... there's no reason we can't play like that all game."

The lesson could be a valuable one for the Stars, who will for the first time since 1995 enter their second game of the season with no points in the standings.

Dallas came into the game with the longest active undefeated streak in season openers (7-0-3 in 10 seasons) – the fourth longest in league history. So that should put some extra pressure on games Friday at home against Boston and on the road Saturday at Nashville.

A slow start could put the Stars in a perilous place – much the same way it did Wednesday against the Avalanche.

Colorado scored on a shot from distance at the 18:11 mark of the first period – a goal Marty Turco said he would have liked to have back. A snap shot from Paul Stastny – the first of three goals for Stastny – put Dallas in a hole entering the first intermission, and the Stars came out reeling.

Stastny wrapped two goals around a Jeff Halpern tally in a chaotic second period, and the Stars were down 4-1 before they knew it.

"You have to have urgency," Stars coach Dave Tippett said. "To win in this league, you have to win one-on-one battles and create space for yourself by skating. Tonight, we did not have enough players to do that."

Halpern, Niklas Hagman and Jussi Jokinen helped do a little more of that in the third period. The Stars drew two power-play opportunities and scored on both of them. Jokinen and Hagman worked a cycle to make it 4-2 on a Jokinen goal at the 7:38 mark, and then Hagman shoveled the puck in the net to bring the deficit to one goal with 2:50 left in the third.

Dallas eventually pulled Turco and came up with some chances but couldn't get another goal and left without a point.

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Colorado's Paul Stastny (right) scores his third goal of the night against Dallas.

Turco said he was not overly thrilled with his performance, and Tippett noted, "We are going to need better goaltending than that."

Said Robidas: "We didn't play anything like we needed to play early in the game. We were the ones chasing, we were the ones taking penalties. As soon as we started pushing the game, that's when we started playing well."

Ironically, Dallas won in the season opener in the same building last season by coming back from a third-period deficit. Colorado goalie Peter Budaj said the Avalanche had that loss in the back of its mind.

"We learned from our mistakes last year," he said. "Tonight, we almost blew the lead, but we didn't. It was a big two points for us."

Points the Stars have said are invaluable in the race for a Western Conference playoff spot.