DALLAS– The Dallas Stars built another multi-goal lead against top scorer Colorado. This time, they managed to win and avoid another 0-2 hole in the NHL playoffs.
“I found a way to win the game, and that’s the most important thing,” Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen said.
Heiskanen scored two power-play goals, Roope Hintz had a goal and three assists and the Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in Game 2 on Thursday night to even the second round of the Western Conference series.
Tyler Seguin scored his first goal this postseason on a short-hander late in a 3-on-1 game that put the Stars up 4-0 late in the second period. Esa Lindell scored into an empty net with 20 seconds left, with Hintz getting her final assist.
Jake Oettinger made 28 saves against a Colorado team that led the NHL in scoring during the regular season and is averaging an NHL-high 5.0 goals this postseason.
Joel Kiviranta, Brandon Duhaime and Valeri Nichushkin scored in the third period for the Avalanche, but were unable to score on a power play in the final three minutes that was partially a 6-on-4 after goaltender Alexander Georgiev skated to the bench.
“Obviously, I think we can handle these situations better. But I think the silver lining is we built 3-0 and 4-0 leads, so we played really good hockey for long stretches against them,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought tonight was better than Game 1. We did most of the things we wanted to do tonight. Building that lead, the right guys scored and got on the scoreboard for us.
Game 3 is Saturday night in Denver.
Colorado had an extra attacker with 3:44 left when Nichushkin scored on a puck that bounced off his right leg. He scored in all seven games, tying Pat LaFontaine’s NHL record set in 1992 with Buffalo for longest scoring streak to start a single postseason. He also tied the franchise’s overall postseason scoring streak with Claude Lemieux and Joe Sakic.
The Avs had also found themselves down 3-0 in the first period of Game 1 two nights earlier before coming back to win 4-3 in overtime to extend their postseason winning streak to five games. It was the third time this season they came back from a multi-goal deficit to win in Dallas.
They fell short this time as they were hurt by some self-induced penalties and went 0 for 3 on power plays. Of the six penalties, they had two for delaying the game after throwing pucks into the stands, and two more for too many men on the ice.
“The second period for me was when part fell. It’s just not sharp,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Then we turn around in the third and go to work, and that’s what happens.”
Hintz, whose only previous point this postseason was an empty net goal in Game 4 of the opening series against Vegas, had Dallas up 2-0 less than two minutes into the second period. This came after the Avalanche failed to score on a power play that continued from the end of the first period when Oettinger made some impressive saves, with a glove save following a close backhand shot by Nichushkin on a rebound.
It was also right after Miles Wood, who scored in overtime for Colorado in Game 1, had a shot blocked by Oettinger and the Stars took the puck the other way. Hintz was to the left of Alexander Georgiev when he received a cross-court pass from Nils Lundkvist.
Georgiev stopped 26 shots.
Dallas, which in the first round against Vegas lost the first two games at home before winning the series in Game 7, led 3-0 with four minutes left in the second period on Thursday when captain Jamie Benn and Hintz provided assists when Heiskanen scored with a shot off an Avs stick.
Benn was called for a huge penalty a few minutes earlier for a big hit that tied defenseman Devon Toews behind the Colorado net. But the referees reviewed the play and did not award a penalty after replay showed a shoulder-to-shoulder hit. Toews left the game briefly, but returned before the end of the second period.
“It’s a physical game, it’s a physical player. … I do not want to say. I mean, does he get a piece of his shoulder? Yes. I guess you could argue that, but the target is high and it’s on his head, and it makes contact with his head,” Bednar said. “I’ve often seen guys get called for the headshot penalty with a lot less than that, but I don’t think they thought that way. And this time of year you have to play with some of those things.”
Hintz was serving a penalty when Seguin got his first short-hander in his 123rd playoff game to make it 4-0.
League MVP finalist Nathan MacKinnon suffered the first delay of the game against Colorado, knocking the puck out of his own zone. Dallas capitalized, going up 1-0 after a circle-to-circle pass from Hintz to Heiskanen with 5:14 left in the first period.
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