DENVER — The Avalanche have the most comeback wins in the NHL this season. But at some point, the ability to erase large deficits is going to catch up to them. Two nights after getting dominated by Connor McDavid’s Oilers, the Avalanche fell 7-4 to the Stars on Sunday in a game that likely will seal the Division title for Dallas.
The Avs were fortunate to score the first goal despite Dallas dominating play early. And when Colorado finally found its footing in the offensive zone, a lethal Stars power play, which was a perfect 3-for-3, put the game completely in the road team’s control.
“We did some dumb stuff today,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “We just weren’t good enough defensively.”
Colorado trailed 5-2 and scored twice to make it a game before giving up a sixth tally to Wyatt Johnston with 4:48 remaining in regulation. Bednar pulled his goalie with more than three minutes remaining and Dallas eventually added an empty netter.
Zach Parise on the Avs' inconsistencies the past handful of games pic.twitter.com/C87zDch9Ry
— Aarif Deen (@runwriteAarif) April 8, 2024
The Avs fell to 48-24-6 and are five points back of the Stars with four games remaining. What’s even more concerning is that the Avalanche are no longer well ahead of Winnipeg for home-ice advantage in the first round. The Jets, who are in town next weekend for the third and final meeting between the two clubs, trail the Avalanche by two points with a game in hand. Winnipeg holds the regulation wins tiebreaker and is 2-0 against the Avs.
Dallas’ three power-play opportunities all came in the second period. It needed just 4:06 of cumulative time on the man-advantage to score three times.
Several minutes after the game-tying goal from Artturi Lehkonen — also on the power play — defenseman Sean Walker took an accidental double-minor penalty for high-sticking and it ended up in a worst-case scenario for Colorado. The Avs started the kill doing quite well, but as soon as Dallas got its first good look, it scored. Roope Hintz capitalized at 1:10 for his 30th of the season, restoring the Stars’ lead. On the second part of the double minor, Tyler Seguin pitched in to give the Stars a two-goal lead.
But they weren’t done.
Cale Makar was called for slashing less than three minutes later, and Mason Marchment added a third tally on the power play to open up a commanding three-goal lead. The Stars seemed to have the game won. But as has been the pattern all season, Colorado started to inch closer to a comeback.
First, a late second-period tally from Brandon Duhaime, his first with the Avs, made it 5-3. Duhaime’s hard-working play saw him outmuscle the defenseman in the crease and beat goalie Jake Oettinger to the loose puck for the goal.
Colorado took that momentum into the third period, playing a more effective game defensively. Dallas had just two shots in the first 12 minutes of the period and Jonathan Drouin tipped one past Oettinger off a point shot from Devon Toews to make it 5-4 with just under 10 minutes remaining. Everything seemed like it was going well before Johnston’s late goal put the game out of reach.
Colorado’s first goal came from Walker. Through the first eight minutes of the first period, the Stars had a 9-1 lead in shots. Goalie Alexandar Georgiev was excelling in the early going and seemed to be gearing up for a much-needed bounceback effort. The lone shot for Colorado from Walker came from the point and beat Oettinger, who didn’t have a clear look at the puck through traffic.
Georgiev finished with 30 saves.
“Probably the one that he’d like back was the one that squeaked through him on the quick slip to the middle on the powerplay,” Bednar said of Georgiev. “But he was good.”
Alexandar Georgiev following the Avs' 7-4 loss:
"I have to be better." pic.twitter.com/tzfS6UzzsW
— Aarif Deen (@runwriteAarif) April 8, 2024