Record | Goaltender | GAA / SV% | |
Dallas Stars | 6-5-0 | Anton Khudobin | 5.17 / .892 |
Colorado Avalanche | 7-2-1 | Pavel Francouz | 4.00 / .892 |
The Colorado Avalanche pulled themselves back into this Second Round series with a dominating 6-4 victory over the Dallas Stars on Wednesday. Spoiling the Stars 5-game winning streak, the Aves put up a series of three-straight goals twice, once in the 2nd period, and again in the third. Colorado’s three goals in the third, added to Dallas’s three made for an exciting six-goal third.
The Avalanche received an early power play in the opening frame, but Dallas’s 78.6% penalty kill (good enough for 7th of eight) killed off the man-advantage (ESPN). Tyler Seguin, again, scored first, giving the Stars a 1-0 lead at the 11:12 mark of the first.
It wasn’t until 60 seconds into the middle period that Colorado got on the board, but it was Nikita Zadorov with his 2nd of the post-season that tied the game 1-1. Three minutes and 41 seconds later, Andre Burakovsky made it 2-1 Colorado, and at the 11-minute mark, Gabriel Landeskog improved his teams’ lead by another goal. The Avalanche led 3-1 heading into the third period. The 2nd featured its’ share of penalties, including two Stars power plays, a two-minute stint of 4-on-4, and two Avalanche power plays, but no one converted with their man-advantage.
The third period saw just one power play, and went to the Stars as Landeskog was called for roughing at the 2:36 mark. Both the Stars and the Aves went 0-for-3 on the man-advantage. Within six minutes, Dallas put up three goals to make it 4-3, Stars. Goals from Denis Gurianov (4:42), Blake Comeau (9:02), and Jamie Benn (10:47), many believed that Dallas would hold that one-goal lead to win their 6th straight game and take hold of the series 3-0. But less than two minutes after Benn’s goal, Mikko Rantanen tied it 4-4 with his 5th of the playoffs. Then, 1:52 later, Nazem Kadri, who had already put up an assist, scored the eventual game-winning goal with his 7th goal. The Stars elected to pull Anton Khudobin for the extra-skater in hopes of tying the game again, but Pierre-Edouard Bellemare sealed the win with an empty-net goal to make it 6-4. Colorado was held to just seven shots on goal in the third, but in scoring three, the period saw a shot percentage of 42.8% for the winning-team.
Aves goaltender Pavel Francouz made 33 saves on 37 shots, ending his night with a .892 save percentage, and Anton Khudobin (DAL) allowed five goals on 31 shots for a .839 SV%.
Below is the remaining schedule for DAL v COL:
Sunday August 29 @ 6:00pm EST
Monday August 31 @ 9:45pm EST
Wednesday September 2 @ TBD
ESPN. (2020). 2019-20 NHL Hockey Stats and League Leaders- Special Teams. Retrieved from http://www.espn.com/nhl/statistics/team/_/stat/special-teams/sort/powerPlayGoalsAgainst/order/false.
One thought on “*UPDATED* Dallas Stars vs Colorado Avalanche: Game 4 Preview”