COLORADO FALLS SHORT IN DALLAS
DALLAS» The gasps from fans inside American Airlines Center in Dallas on Saturday evening drowned out the blaring muisic as they witnessed the Dallas Stars defeat the hot Avalanche 3-1.
It was a theme throughout the night as one player on the host team recorded a Gordie Howe Hat Trick and both teams struggled to capitalize on the numerous miscues of the other.
Colorado just struggled a lot more.
The Avs (4-2-0) didn’t get their first real chance until five minutes into the game when Stars defenseman Esa Lindell was penalized for holding. The Avs managed just a single shot — and a poor one at that — on the power play, something that has plagued the team to start the season.
Entering the game, the Avs had converted on only 16 percent of their power-play opportunities — and were just 1-of-12 on the road. The numbers only worsened Saturday night as the Avs’ four power-play opportunities were quashed by the Stars (2-3-0).
That they failed to capitalize against Dallas shouldn’t come as a surprise, given the Stars have yet to allow a short-handed goal this season. But that doesn’t explain the penalties that the Avs committed, resulting in chances for the Stars, a team that is considerably better with the extra player.
“I just felt like we didn’t have the pace we needed for the execution there,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We were moving the puck just a little bit too slow. We just weren’t thinking one step ahead tonight.”
The Stars entered Saturday tied for second in the NHL on the power play, converting on nearly 34 percent of their opportunities. But they had their struggles as well, failing to convert on their first four opportunities of the game.
However, captain Jamie Benn, with an assist from center Tyler Seguin, broke a scoreless tie in the opening minute of the second period and Seguin capitalized on the fifth power play by scoring in the final seconds of the second period, thanks to assists from Devin Shore and Benn.
It certainly could’ve been worse for the Avs. They managed to kill a 5-on-3 power play in the second period and were outshot by the Stars 36-22 in the game.
But the offense was stale for the most part, failing to make Stars goalie Ben Bishop sweat too much in the net.
Center Nathan Mackinnon, who started for the Avs despite a scary injury Friday night, managed just one shot Saturday.
“It happens,” Mackinnon said of the team’s lack of production on the the power play. “We scored a couple of goals (Friday) night, so we won’t get too disappointed.”
Center Matt Duchene was the one who came through for the Avs in the opening minutes of the third period by scoring a goal to cut the lead to 2-1.
Duchene now has three goals to go with his three assists. His offense alone though wasn’t enough to overcome Benn and Seguin.
Seguin, by the way, was the player who recorded the Gordie Howe Hat Trick — an assist, a goal and a fight in the same game.
While Seguin’s scoring is nothing new, the fight marked the first of his career and came as he disproved of Nikita Zadorov roughing Benn in the third period. The fight actually came against former Star Patrik Nemeth, who was just picked up by the Avs on waivers less than two weeks ago.
Lindell added an empty-netter for the Stars in the closing minute to put the icing on the cake.
Colorado gets a couple days off before taking on the Predators in Nashville on Tuesday.