Will the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions fend off elimination tonight against the Dallas Stars? Simulating Colorado vs. Dallas Game 5 in NHL 24
Our series simulation had the Avalanche easily taking out the Stars in five games. Well, in real life the roles have been reversed, and Dallas has the opportunity tonight to send the 2022 Stanley Cup Champions to the golf course.
Dallas will be without their No. 1 centerman Roope Hintz. Even without Hintz in the lineup, the Stars look like a formidable opponent and their depth is quite possibly the best in the NHL playoffs.
Here are the lines we used for the simulation:
Dallas' Projected Lines:
Robertson - Seguin - Stankoven
Benn - Johnston - Pavelski
Marchment - Duchene - Dadonov
Faksa - Steel - Smith
Harley - Heiskanen
Lindell - Tanev
Suter - Lundkvist
Oettinger
Wedgewood
Colorado will get their No. 2 defenceman back after Devon Toews missed Game 4. It's all hands on deck for the Avs as their season is on the line tonight in Texas.
Colorado's Projected Lines:
Lehkonen - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Parise - Mittelstadt - Drouin
Wood - Colton - Kiviranta
Duhaime - Trenin - Cogliano
Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
Johnson - Walker
Georgiev
Annunen
The real life Colorado team will want to start the way the CPU Avalanche came out in the simulation. Colorado outshot Dallas 12-6 in the 1st period and Zach Parise opened the scoring just five minutes in.
However, the second period wasn't so nice for the Avs. Dallas responded in a big way and scored three unanswered goals in a span of three-and-a-half minutes, led by Matt Duchene who scored twice.
Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon scored on a 5-on-3 powerplay to make it a 3-2 game. But the flurries of goals in the second frame proved to be enough for Dallas as they hung on to win.
Jake Oettinger has been unreal in real life for the Stars and he was the same here in our simulation making 30 saves on 32 shots. And a game-saving stop with 30 seconds left to go.
MacKinnon did all he could, as we will expect to see tonight in real life, with his goal in the third and registering five shots and seven hits.
Puck drop for Game 5 at the American Airlines Center is at 8pm EST.