Game One Recap: Avs come back to beat Stars in overtime

Just something about those pesky Avs.

5/16.

That’s how far along the Colorado Avalanche now, as they opened the second round with a 4-3 comeback win against the Dallas Stars in Game One. Opening the series in Dallas and down 3-0 after one period, they stormed back with four unanswered goals to win.

Not only was the offense turned up, but the defense shut down the dangerous Stars offense. After the first period, they only allowed seven shots on Alexandar Georgiev while peppering Jake Oettinger with 17 shots themselves. It was only a matter of time before the dam broke, and here’s how it did!

First Period

Colorado started off good with their forecheck creating chances and keeping up with Dallas. Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichsuhkin nearly forechecked their way into a goal, but they didn’t quite put it all together.

After Cale Makar found the iron, momentum would swing in the Stars’ favor. Ryan Suter would open the scoring in the series with a shot from the point getting through traffic. It might’ve been tipped in front by Tyler Seguin, but nonetheless, the home team had the lead.

While Georgiev made a big save on Evgenii Dadonov in front, he would be beaten once again. On just the fifth shot of the game, red-hot Wyatt Johnston would score right off the faceoff to double the lead.

Devon Toews had a high-stick not get called, while the Avs started to get into penalty trouble themselves. Mikko Rantanen took a tripping penalty, and 30 seconds later Yakov Trenin would take a careless high-sticking call himself.

Hence, Dallas had 1:32 of 5-on-3 power play time. They would take advantage of it, with Jason Robertson’s shot hitting Jamie Benn in front to give them a 3-0 lead.

Rantanen would take yet another penalty, this time for slashing in the final minute. He and the entire Colorado team would be lucky not to be down 4-0 with Roope Hintz’s chance in front somehow not going in.

Second Period

The Avs started the period well by killing off the rest of the Rantanen penalty and had a good look from Trenin go wide. But it was a catalyst for what was to come for Colorado.

Nichushkin drew a slashing penalty on Evgenii Dadonov. The first power play of the night was successful for the Avs, with the man who drew the penalty finishing off the rebound in front to get his team on the board.

There would be a bit of a scare when Artturi Lehkonen blocked a shot and went off grimacing in pain, but luckily would be just fine. It would be beneficial as he helped on an ensuing power play when Craig Smith hooked Makar. Once again, the man who drew the penalty would score it from the slot to get Colorado within one.

After killing off a Miles Wood high-sticking penalty, the Avs got back to business. Chances from the likes of Makar, MacKinnon, Lehkonen, and Toews all just went missing. Hence, the Avalanche were still down 3-2 going into the room. But, they had all the momentum on their side, only giving up three shots all period long.

Third Period

Colorado completed the job they needed just 39 seconds into the frame. MacKinnon found a rebound and put it into an empty net to tie the game up at three.

The Avs kept up with their chances, Casey Mittelstadt in particular had a good look drift wide of the cage. At the other end, Dallas didn’t get too many looks but they did take advantage of Josh Manson being caught out of position but was denied by Georgiev.

After playing 4-on-4 hockey with a hooking penalty on Manson and embellishment on Hintz, both teams got great looks in the closing minutes. While Colorado didn’t have a shot for 10 minutes, they had a 2-on-1 with Nichushkin and MacKinnon broken up, leading to Hintz going in 1-on-1 stopped brilliantly with the shoulder of Georgiev. Hence, we needed extra time to decide this one for the first time this postseason for the Avs.

Overtime

It would be all Dallas to open the extra period. Georgiev was stellar, making save after save to keep the Avalanche in it. His best one was moving from right to left on Seguin in front to rob him.

It would be incredibly beneficial, as the Avs finally started to find their feet in the overtime. Wood would be the hero, as he received the stretch pass by Andrew Cogliano and blew by everybody including Oettinger for the winner.

Takeaways

It took a while for the Avalanche to get themselves going, and going down 3-0 is far from ideal. But, they sure do love coming back. Not only is it one of the many comebacks they’ve made all season, but it is the third time they’ve come back this season in Dallas to win, including regular and post-season. Having been off for a week, it was certainly going to be a storyline to see how the team came out and performed. It wasn’t pretty to start, but they got their legs under them eventually and outperformed the Stars for the majority of the game to earn themselves the 1-0 series lead.

Shoutout to Georgiev who was brilliant. While he was shaky giving up two goals on the first five shots, he bounced back brilliantly. Particularly, he was stellar in the overtime period. He was making saves left, right, and center to hold off the charging Stars. It eventually paid off in the end, but even if it didn’t he was great as is. He’s proven he can bounce back not just across a whole series, but even in singular games as he did here. It’s certainly one of those games you’ll look back on in this series, especially with your team already up 1-0 on the road.

Finally, the depth of the team really showed. While the stars like Makar, Nichushkin, and MacKinnon scored to fire up the comeback in regulation, it would be none of them getting involved in the overtime winner. Wood’s speed was crucial to beating Chris Tanev and Miro Hiskanen along the way, and he got the pass from Cogliano. Two guys who battle in the bottom six and don’t provide much showed their scoring touch against some of the Stars’ top defenders.

Upcoming

Game Two of this series is on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. MT with this game being broadcast on TNT. Colorado will look to bring a dominant 2-0 series lead to Ball Arena.