Dallas Stars use 4-goal second period to beat Avalanche 5-2

The Dallas Stars may have trailed early in Game 2, but a major momentum swing in the second period led to a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche, extending the series lead to 2-0.

Game 2 was going to be a test for the Colorado Avalanche. The team came in trailing the Dallas Stars 1-0 in the series, and were without goaltender Philipp Grubauer, defenseman Erik Johnson, and forward Matt Calvert.

In the early stages of the game, the Avalanche came out ready to take on that challenge. The team earned an early advantage in shots on goal, a power play opportunity, and a goal on that power play. The Colorado goal came from none other than Nathan MacKinnon after Mikko Rantanen fed him a beautiful saucer pass.

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With the goal, MacKinnon matched the Avalanche franchise record for longest point streak to start a postseason. He has now recorded a point in each of Colorado’s ten games since the restart earlier this month.

The rest of the period was played at a fast pace, with the Avs leading the way. Colorado outshot Dallas 20-6 in the first period and were led by MacKinnon, who registered more shots than the entire Stars team (seven).

The second period began with some more balanced play, at least on the shot clock, until Joe Pavelski took a slashing penalty. The ensuing power play led to a MacKinnon to Rantanen connection to double the Colorado lead.

Not long after that second goal, however, the Avalanche got into some penalty trouble, and Pavelski was able to redeem himself with a five-on-three goal to make it 2-1. With one man out of the box, but still playing short-handed, the Avs surrendered the equalizer to Radek Faksa. At the game’s halfway point, there were four power play tallies and an even score.

The Stars, though, got into some penalty trouble of their own following two quick goals. Fortunately for Dallas, the penalty kill unit came up big and were helped by the crossbar, which thwarted Nathan MacKinnon’s bid for a third point in the game.

Moments after Dallas successfully killed a five-on-three and a five-on-four, Alexander Radulov had a puck deflect off of his chest and past Colorado goalie Pavel Francouz to give the Stars their first lead of the game.

Another Stars penalty gave the Avalanche an opportunity to tie things up, but another successful kill led to a fourth Dallas goal, courtesy of defenseman Esa Lindell. In total, four goals and an 18-11 shot advantage in the second period gave Dallas a 4-2 edge heading into the third.

As the final frame commenced, the Stars were able to avoid giving the Avalanche too much to work with. They did get outshot 9-3, but Anton Khudobin made some big saves in the third, as he did throughout the entire contest. He recorded 38 saves on 40 shots to help clinch the victory, and Jamie Oleksiak iced the game with a late empty net strike.

For the Avalanche, it was a tale of two games. In the first period, they fired 20 shots on goal, and in the first 25-30 minutes of the game, had a 2-0 lead and a pair of power play goals (2 for 2 at that point). From there, it was all Dallas, as the Avs were outscored 5-0, went 0/5 with the man advantage, and launched only 20 shots on frame.

The Stars did a very good job utilizing the momentum swing that went in their favor in the second period. That not only allowed them to gain the lead, but also to focus on their defensive brand of hockey. In the end, it was enough to capture a 2-0 lead in the series.

Game 3 will just about be a must-win for the Avalanche. They will need to find a way to get more pucks in the net and to slow down a Stars offense that now has scored five or more goals in three straight games and in four of the last five. For Dallas, the third game of this series will be a chance to to extend its winning streak to six games.