STAR- CROSSED
Avalanche can’t stop Dallas’ offensive bursts; Penalties, mistakes take their toll
Two brief stretches buried the Avalanche on Sunday, putting its playoff hopes in dire straits. Rallying from a horrible first period and a 3-0 deficit, the Avs got to within 3-2 heading into the third period and had all the momentum.
Then, beginning with Tyson Jost’s tripping penalty 5: 32 into the third, the roof caved in — just like it had within a five- minute stretch of the first period — and the Dallas Stars were again in charge in Edmonton.
The Stars emerged 5- 4 winners in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinal series to take a commanding 3- 1 lead. Dallas can send Colorado home and advance to the conference finals with a victory in Monday’s Game 5 at Rogers Place.
The Avs, who took seven penalties and allowed three power- play goals, scored the last two goals of the game — the latter with 3.6 seconds remaining.
“It feels like they score in bunches right now. They’re very opportunistic,” Avs center Nathan MacKinnon said. “Obviously, some of that’s on us. When they get one, they get two
or three right now. We got to limit that. You know, the series isn’t over. We’re going to be ready for Game 5.”
Trailing 3- 2 but having dominated the second period and early play in the third, Jost tripped Stars defenseman John Klingberg against the end boards in Dallas’ zone — 200 feet from Colorado’s net. Roope Hintz scored Dallas’ third power- play goal with two seconds remaining on Jost’s penalty. On the next shift 32 seconds later, Avs star rookie defenseman Cale Makar made a rare turnover and inadvertently placed the puck at the top of goalie Pavel Francouz’s crease, where Denis Gurianov tapped it in to extend Dallas’ lead to 5- 2.
Francouz, who seemed to struggle most of the game, was pulled for third- string goalie Michael Hutchinson at that point.
Avs forward Valeri Nichushkin scored his second goal of the game, and the playoffs, shortly thereafter, but Colorado couldn’t further solve goalie Anton Khudobin until the final seconds when Vladislav Namestnikov struck.
“We got to shake it off. I thought we played good enough to win,” MacKinnon said. “We outshot them every game but one this series. We’ve had lots of leads. We’ve scored plenty of goals.”
The Avalanche’s poor puck management in the first period led to two failed power plays and its first shot came with just 94 seconds left in the frame. By then they trailed 3- 0.
The Avs stormed back to get within a goal with an excellent second period. They outshot the Stars 17- 8 and got goals from Nichushkin and Makar. The tallies came at 13: 24 and 19: 34 — the latter on a 5- on- 3 power play shortly after Dallas’ Jamie Oleksiak and Blake Comeau were assessed penalties at 19: 23.
Makar, who took a crosscrease pass from MacKinnon and one- timed the puck past Khudobin, assisted on Nishushkin’s rebound goal with a shot from the point. Makar had a team- high five shots through two periods, and MacKinnon was unusually quiet with just one.
Colorado came out flat — partly because the Stars checked everything in white. The Avs played the puck like a hot potato against Dallas’ blood- and- guts attack, making poor passes and far too many turnovers to create sustained possession in any area of the ice. Their first shot on Khudobin didn’t occur for the first 18: 26 of the game. They finished with five shots in the first period, coming in the final 90 seconds, but Khudobin stood strong.
Dallas, meanwhile, was sharp and opportunistic in the opening frame. It got a gritty goal in the paint at 6: 18 from Klingberg after Francouz couldn’t smother what seemed like a routine shot in his chest. Then the Stars got powerplay goals from Radek Faksa and Jamie Benn at 8: 33 and 10: 45 — both coming with the Avs’ Nazem Kadri in the penalty box, the first for roughing on Corey Perry and the second for highsticking on Benn.
Dallas finished 3- of- 6 on the power play.
“It’s the penalties that we’re taking and their power play is feeding their offense and their energy right now,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We take a couple penalties early and they capitalize on them.”
He added: “I give our team credit for battling back and scratching and clawing through the second period, but, I say it all the time — catch up hockey is losing hockey. We got to have a better start than that and ( fewer) penalties.
“They’re too dangerous. We got to stay out of the box.”