Game 6 Recap: Duchene ends Colorado’s season as the clock strikes midnight

It took the bulk of two overtime periods for the Dallas Stars to win 2-1.

The Colorado Avalanche earned another game to extend their season with a win in Dallas in Game 5 but needed to repeat that performance to get to a decisive Game 7. In this Game 6 at Ball Arena it was Colorado finally scored first but let Dallas tie the game in the third period. This marathon contest went almost five full periods before Matt Duchene gave Dallas the 2-1 victory quite literally as the clock reached midnight. The Avalanche season is now over as Dallas advances in a 4-2 series win.

The Game

The first period was choppy at times with some whistles and chances at both ends of the ice. By the end of the frame, however, the Avalanche started pressuring more end ended up with a 10-5 shot advantage. The game remained scoreless, though, through 20 minutes.

Colorado received the game’s first power play early in the second period and finally had their first score in a game this series against Dallas. Mikko Rantanen found an opening on the far side of Jake Oettinger and deposited the puck at 5:48. After 40 minutes of play the home team still held the 1-0 advantage on the scoreboard.

A one goal lead is tough to hold and as expected Dallas pushed back. It was Jamie Benn who got the visitors on the scoreboard just under two minutes into the third period on the rush and the game was tied 1-1. A battle this tight to decide a very important game naturally needed overtime to settle.

The first overtime period was controlled mostly by Dallas as both teams began to tire. It seemed the Stars had scored the winning goal but it was waived off for goaltender interference. The play went to a review but the officials seemed reluctant to overturn the call. It was a very close call as Cale Makar had pushed Matt Duchene into Alexandar Georgiev when Mason Marchment scored. No goal and no score in the first extra frame.

Predictably structure started to break down in the second overtime which started tipping the ice in Colorado’s favor. There were some great chances for both teams but it was none other than Matt Duchene who gathered a loose puck at 11:42 and found an open cage to seal the 2-1 victory and 4-2 series win for Dallas.

Takeaways

The fight the Avalanche showed after that miserable Game 4 loss helps soften the blow as the last two games resembled their play much more and gave themselves a chance to win. It really could have been a couple bounces and had the Avalanche moving on. However, losing all three games in this series at home stings and it’s going to be another summer of searching for answers.

As much as depth has been the at times the force-fed storyline of the season the Avalanche top players were once again ridden hard with MacKinnon and Rantanen each over 35 minutes. Dallas has a much more balanced lineup with their two young stars Johnston and Robertson leading the way along with Duchene who had a strong game and played closer to 27 minutes. Some is a coaching decision and some is the quality of that depth.

There will be plenty of time to dissect this season and postseason especially and a lot of tough decisions are coming up this offseason. The Avalanche will probably make even more changes while they wait for clarity on Val Nichushkin and Gabe Landeskog and have to figure out how to construct a cohesive team again. Stay tuned!

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