DALLAS (AP) — Colorado defenseman Cale Makar scored two goals, the second coming off Casey Mittelstadt’s go-ahead shot in the third period, and the Avalanche defeated top-seeded Dallas 5-3 in Game 5 on Wednesday night. breaking their three-game losing streak and extending the second round of the Western Conference Series.
Mittelstadt scored just 1:12 into the third period to make it 3-2, which was the first time the Avalanche had led in the series, except when Miles Wood scored 11 minutes into overtime to win the series opener.
Makar scored an unassisted goal just over three minutes later. His shot from the middle of the right circle went through the legs of goalkeeper Jake Oettinger and was the decisive goal.
League MVP finalist Nathan MacKinnon scored with 3:10 left on a lone assist from Artturi Lehkonen, whose power-play goal in the final second of the first period came on an assist from MacKinnon.
Avalanche goaltender Alexander Georgiev made 23 saves. Oettinger stopped 22 shots.
Joe Pavelski scored his first goal in these playoffs for the Stars and added his second assist this postseason. Miro Heiskanen and rookie Logan Stankoven also scored for Dallas, and Jason Robertson had two assists.
Game 6 is Friday night in Colorado, where the Stars outscored the Avs 9-2 by winning Games 3 and 4. Dallas is 4-1 on the road this postseason — and 3-4 at home.
This was the sixth time in franchise history that the Avs won Game 5 after falling behind 3-1 in a best-of-seven series. They never came back to win the series.
After going 0-8 on power plays and losing the previous three games, the Avalanche scored goals on both occasions with a man advantage in the first two periods.
Makar hit his power-play goal on a wrister from 15 yards out amid a bunch of traffic in front of the net with 3 1/2 minutes left in the second period to tie the game at 2-2.
Mittelstadt’s go-ahead goal came after Zach Parise got the puck into the box and Mittelstadt shot, a ricochet off the right post that hit the back of Oettinger’s leg and went in.
Pavelski scored on a backhand from outside the box off a pass from Matt Duchene midway through the first period after Robertson deflected the puck past Colorado defenseman Josh Manson.
After 14 games without scoring, including the last three games of the regular season, Pavelski scored his 74th career playoff goal, extending his record for most by an American-born player. This is also the maximum for any active player.
Colorado tied it 1-1 with 0.6 seconds left in the first period after Lehkonen’s shot from the top of the slot.
Heiskanen scored his fourth goal of this series and fifth of the playoffs. He passed the puck back to Pavelski, who passed in front to Robertson, who moved to the right side of the net before a nifty cross to Heiskanen on the other side of Georgiev.
Rantanen’s second assist on Makar’s first goal was his 100th career playoff point (33 goals, 67 assists). This came in his 80th career postseason game, making him just the eighth NHL player to reach that milestone in as many games or fewer. He is just the fourth player in Avalanche franchise history to reach 100 points in the playoffs – Joe Sakic’s 188 are at the top of that list.
It was Colorado coach Jared Bednar’s 49th playoff victory, matching Bob Hartley’s most in playoff history. Both led the Avalanche to Stanley Cup titles, Hartley in 2001 and Bednar to the next one in 2022.
