Defense-first Stars befuddle Avalanche, win Game 3 to gain control of series
Denver Post
Colorado’s high-flying hockey team has run into a problem it’s going to need to solve, and that’s the defensive acumen of the Dallas Stars.
The Avalanche dominated Game 3 of this second-round playoff series territorially, but not on the scoreboard. Tyler Seguin had a pair of goals and Jake Oettinger made 29 saves Saturday night at Ball Arena to help Dallas prevail 4-1 and reclaim home-ice advantage in the series.
The Stars now lead the series 2-1. Game 4 is here Monday night.
Dallas found the only goal in a choppy first period. Colorado had a couple of chances to get the puck out of danger, the last of which was a Nathan MacKinnon pass to Devon Toews that didn’t connect. Miro Heiskanen collected it, shoveled a backhanded pass to Logan Stankoven and the rookie squeezed his first Stanley Cup Playoffs goal through Alexandar Georgiev at 18:39 of the period.
Colorado had 25 of the 34 shot attempts in the opening 20 minutes, but crisp passing sequences were hard to come by. The Stars also blocked nearly as many shots (10) as ones that reached goalie Jake Oettinger (12). The Avs also had two full power plays in the period and a third that bled into the second without converting.
Mikko Rantanen got the Avs on the board midway through the second period. Devon Toews found MacKinnon at the top of the circles and he deked past Chris Tanev for a backhanded shot. Rantanen was there to clean up the rebound for his third goal of the postseason.
The Avalanche continued to pour on the pressure, but the Stars have already proven to be much more adept at keeping Colorado from stringing together a bunch of scoring chances.
Colorado was in the middle of a disjointed line change when Dallas quickly turned a dump-in into a counter-attack goal. Evgenii Dadonov sent a centering feed from outside the left faceoff circle towards the far post, and Seguin was able to beat Andrew Cogliano to it and redirect it across the goal line at 15:13 of the period. He added an empty-netter in the 59th minute to seal the victory.
Dallas was one of the best road teams in the NHL this season. The Stars were able to claw back from a 0-2 series hole after losing twice at home in the first round to the defending champions before knocking the Vegas Golden Knights out in Game 7.
Stars forward Mason Marchment said his team would need to play a greasy road game Saturday night. Mission accomplished.
Now the Avalanche is going to have to win at least one more game in Texas to advance, and faces a critical Game 4 at home two nights from now.
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