After getting a three-goal lead, Dallas watched it slip away in overtime to fall behind 1-0 in the series.
After getting a three-goal lead, Dallas watched it slip away in overtime to fall behind 1-0 in the series.
Coming off an intense seven-game first-round series against the Vegas Golden Knights, the last thing the Dallas Stars wanted was to give up home-ice advantage to the Colorado Avalanche. They fell behind 2-0 against the Golden Knights before taking four of the next five.
But to quote a line from the Scottish poet Robert Burns, "The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry."
After jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first period, the Stars fell apart in the second and part of the third, allowing four unanswered goals for a heartbreaking 4-3 loss in overtime.
"Every time is different," Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said post-game. "You learn about each other as the series goes on. What we know about (the Avalanche) is what happened tonight."
As expected, both teams came out fast in the first period. Radek Faksa, who scored the game-winning goal in Game 7, took the first shot of Tuesday's game right out of the gate, but Avs goalie Alexandar Georgiev made the save.
At 7:26, Ryan Suter broke through for Dallas after confusion on the Colorado defense allowed him to snap a wrister through traffic and past a surprised Georgiev.
It was Suter's seventh career playoff goal. He had one wiped out at 7:17 in Game 1 of the first-round series against Vegas. This one counted, and Suter became the oldest defenseman in team history (39 years, 107 days) to score a playoff goal. He surpassed Craig Ludwig (38 years, 87 days) in the 1999 Stanley Cup Final, which Dallas eventually won.
Wyatt Johnston, who leads the team in scoring during the post-season, made it 2-0 at 10:55. After Jamie Benn won the faceoff, Joe Pavelski chipped the puck to Johnston, who cut to his right and snapped a wrist shot into the net off a deflection. Johnston now has eight points (5-3-8) through seven-plus playoff games.
Dallas went on its first power play at 15:58 when Mikko Rantanen was called for tripping. Less than 30 seconds later, Jason Robertson took a high stick from Yakov Trenin to put them in a 5-on-3 advantage.
That proved to be a costly mistake for the Avs when Benn tipped in a wrister from Robertson for his second goal of the playoffs and a 3-0 Stars lead. It was the team's biggest lead of this post-season.
Rantanen found himself back in the penalty box at the 18:51 mark for slashing. Benn almost had his second goal of the night, but Avs defenseman Josh Manson made a tremendous save just before the buzzer to keep his team from being down four goals after one period.
The Stars had a 38-3-2 record when leading after one period during the regular season. However, two of those losses came against the Avalanche at American Airlines Center, so the game was far from over.
Sure enough, the second period belonged to Colorado. Dallas began the frame with 51 seconds left on the power play and a chance to do more damage. But the Avs, who went 10-for-13 on the penalty-kill in their first-round series with the Winnipeg Jets, kept the Stars from adding another power play goal.
The Stars received their first penalty of the game at 5:18 when Evgenii Dadonov was called for slashing Valeri Nichushkin. The Avs capitalized on a Nichushkin rebound at the left post 13 seconds into the power play to cut the Dallas lead to 3-1. It was Nichushkin's eighth goal in six games this postseason, which leads the NHL.
Craig Smith was called for holding, and the Avs made it 3-2 on another power play opportunity. Cale Makar fired a wrister from the high slot, putting his team back in the game.
Dallas had a chance to get a power play back when Miles Wood went off for high sticking Nils Lundkvist at 9:26, but failed to convert.
The Stars weathered the storm despite being outshot 11-3 in the period, but skated to the dressing room clinging to their 3-2 lead. They didn't give up a lead in the third period during the entire series with Vegas, and were looking to get back the momentum they had in the first period against the Avs.
Nathan MacKinnon had other ideas. Just 39 seconds into the period, the Hart Trophy finalist jumped on a loose puck at the right side of the crease after a deflected shot by Makar, and tied the game 3-3.
DeBoer shuffled up his lines to try and regain the energy the team lost in the second period. Johnston went to the line with Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson, and Logan Stankoven moved to the Matt Duchene-Tyler Seguin line.
Manson went off for hooking Roope Hintz at the 14:35 mark. But Hintz also went to the box for embellishment, so both teams were in 4-on-4 mode for two minutes. Neither could take advantage of the extra space.
Dallas had a chance to reclaim the lead late in the third when Hintz sped into the slot, only to have his shot go over the top of the net, sending the game to overtime.
The Stars came out on the attack to start the extra frame with three quality chances, two by Seguin and one by Johnston. Georgiev snuffed out all three with spectacular saves.
Those saves turned out to be the difference. At 11:03, Wood outraced the Stars defense on a solo rush and backhanded one through the crease, sealing the 4-3 win for the Avs and putting them into a 1-0 lead in the series.
The Stars knew going in they would have to play a complete game against a Colorado team top-heavy with scorers in MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar and Nichushkin.
"You can't take a breath with these guys," Benn said. "They are a great team and they come at you. They took over in that second period, and they found a way to get one early in the third. We had our chances to win the game."
As so often happens in big moments during the postseason, it was Wood who played the hero, scoring his third goal this post-season and fifth in 19 career Stanley Cup playoff games.
It looked like the adrenaline that carried over from Game 7 of the first round kicked in for Dallas at the start on Tuesday, only to have the team run out of gas in the second period and allow the Avs to gradually claw back.
"We shouldn't have got to overtime," Duchene said. "You're up 3-0. I don't think we stayed on our toes enough, maybe in the second period we took our foot off the gas a little bit."
After outshooting Colorado 9-5 in the first period, Dallas could only muster seven in the next two periods. They had six shots on goal in overtime and might have had a game-winner if Georgiev hadn't saved the day for the Avs.
Meanwhile, Colorado had a combined 21 shots on goal from the second period through overtime. They even took control of the physical aspect of the game with 45 hits to Dallas' 20.
Both teams had their share of penalties, but the Stars gave momentum back to Colorado, who managed to score two power play goals in the second period to put themselves back within range.
Game 2 is set for Thursday night at 8:30 Pm CT at American Airlines Center. No one has to remind the Stars how pivotal the next game is.
"No time to feel sorry for ourselves," Duchene said. "We've been in this position before, and this time we want to make sure we split."
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