Game 2 WCSF AfterThoughts: Get Ups and Knock Downs

Driving a nightmare I can’t escape from

Helplessly praying, the light isn’t fading

Hiding the shock and the chill in my bones

***

Every playoff lead feels precarious, it must be said. Because the stakes are higher, every bounce wracks your nerves, every shot feels like impending doom. So, it’s good to remember that some of the terror of that third period was just standard postseason overreaction.

Not all of it, though. Because a 3-0 blown lead is one thing when the team chips away in the second, but a 4-0 lead in the third period has to be sacrosanct. You can’t go down two games to zip with home ice advantage two series in a row. You simply can’t do that to your fans, legally. Cruel and unusual, etc.

So it was with great relief and joy that Esa Lindell’s shot sailed into the gaping net, allowing the entire AAC to exhale for one of the only times in the third period. Maybe Colorado *is* capable of being defeated if you just stick with it and convert your chances. After all, the Stars have scored 7 goals in two games. They’ve scored three power play goals, a shorthanded goal, and they shut out the Avs’ power play in the most crucial moment of the series thus far. There’s a whole lot to like here, and the relief felt earned when Lindell scored.

But gee whiz, ya bunch of goofuses, maybe do yourselves a favor and stop treating third periods like a self-imposed torture chamber.

***

The tone for this game was established in the first period. There were power plays and power saves, as Oettinger made huge saves both right after the 1-0 goal, and right before the end of the first period. That first goal was a sweet one, by the way, with Roope Hintz’s passing looking as crisp as ever to Heiskanen after a puck scramble in front of the net saw Dallas come out with possession. This wasn’t the last time Heiskanen would leave his mark on this game, but it was the most important moment for him and Hintz in getting them both going again. Dallas’s getting a lead after a strong first period gave them confidence to build upon, even if they waited until the second period to do all of the construction.

The parallels to Game 1 weren’t absent, but they were changed sufficiently for my liking. Miles Wood, for instance, was foiled by Thomas Harley on a partial breakaway at the start of the second period, giving us a look at what almost happened in overtime on Tuesday. It was also a good omen for what happened 30 seconds later.

I suppose that if you’re only gonna play only five minutes, you should make them count. Nils Lundkvist decided to do that. It was all started by a great entry pass by Stankoven to Marchment, and Lundkvist jumped into the play, forcing every Avalanche player on the ice to focus on him. But Lundkvist has seen a thing or two in his time, and he dished the chance off to Hintz, who was wide open down low, and Hintz waited a beat for Georgiev’s lunge (which sounds like a notable geographical feature in New Mexico or something) to subside before plopping the puck in the far corner of the net.

Oh baby what a pass from Nils Lundkvist. pic.twitter.com/Vq7tirJpSx

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) May 10, 2024

It would’ve been even cooler if Lundkvist hadn’t gotten his first third period ice time in ages, eating two goals against in the process. And thus it was that Lundkvist set up a goal and still ended up a minus-one by night’s end. The universe may have it in for this guy.

The Stars’ momentum continued when Jamie Benn flattened Devon Toews behind the net as Toews caught a puck with his glove. No penalty was called on the ice, but come on, you all know the drill by now. The officials “called” a major (which they didn’t even bother to categorize) in order to give themselves permission to review the play, but they shortly saw what they and we had all seen originally: Benn’s hit was as clean as it was devastating, and Toews would return at the midway point of the second period.

After review Jamie Benn was not given a penalty for this hit on Devon Toews pic.twitter.com/pCyOmLbFiV

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 10, 2024

Josh Manson would attempt some modicum of revenge in the third, nearly putting himself into the 30th row of seats as he just barely missed running Benn on a power play zone entry. Thankfully, Benn had his head up and his foot down, and he let Manson put himself into the boards.

Manson took another run at Benn later on by the benches, but Benn was ready for it, popping up onto the bench before Tyler Seguin pushed him back onto the ice in a manner which can only be described as gleeful.

Cale Makar continued to be a menace in this game, adding Dadonov to his collection of “Players Who Tried to Attack Me on the Point, lol.” This time, Makar was foiled by Oettinger, but it was yet another dangerous chance among many that Oettinger had to save before the halfway point of the game.

Joe Pavelski got a breakway with just over 13 minutes to go in the second period, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better player do a more accurate impression of a rubbish one that in that moment, when Pavelski deked the puck into the corner before anyone really even got to him. Pavelski just looks bothered by something, though I couldn’t tell you whether that something is mental or physical or chronological.

Colorado took their third unforced error of the night when Josh Manson added another delay of game to the Avalanche of Delays and Too Many Mans, but the Stars couldn’t quite generate that killer sort of chance, and you were left to wonder whether Dallas would pay for their inefficiency when Colorado got their inevitable chance on the power play later on as they did in Game 1.

After another set of Colorado pressure that saw Girard put a puck off the iron, Evgenii Dadonov got another one of his patented playoff breakaways at the other end. He also made one of his patented playoff breakaway misses, but it was all part of a plan, as he drew a slashing penalty on the chance (which may have been offside, to my eyes). And Heiskanen very quickly converted with a deflected shot that Georgiev never saw, giving the Stars another power play goal, and another 3-0 lead against Colorado before the second period was over.

One of DeBoer’s points the other day was how the Stars can’t completely collapse on the penalty kill against Colorado, because it’s not reasonable to expect to allow them zero power plays. At some point, your PK has to come up with a kill, just as your goalie needs to give you a save. Dallas did him one better, though: not only was the penalty kill perfect in this one, it actually ended up plus-1.

Roope Hintz took a penalty on Rantanen late in the second period that I don’t think always gets called, but given the penalty disparity, his free hand was active enough to warrant a whistle. But the Stars would weather some early pressure to convert the power play the other direction, as Thomas Harley led a 3-on-1 rush that he shot himself. It didn’t go in, but Tyler Seguin was able to collect the rebound, make a beautiful play through a pair of Colorado skates, and roof it over a befuddled Georgiev, who seemed to headbutt Makar right in the ol’ wedding vegetables with a desperation lunge, just to add insult to insult.

The biggest insults will probably be reserved for Marchment, who did have an embellishment of embellishments, lunging out with his skates to exaggerate the interference Sam Girard was committing. That put Marchment in the box for the second time in the game. Good to have ya back, buddy.

So, after blowing a 3-0 lead in Game 1, you were probably all prepared to make some 4-0 jokes about the Stars with 20 minutes to go. Those jokes probably stopped being funny before you made them, but they surely got even less funny when Joel Kiviranta got some scraps and put a rebound back into the net to make it 4-1. Don’t joke about things! Good lesson for all the kids out there.

From there, it got dicey, then downright sickening. The Stars got another power play gifted to them with another Avalanche Too Many Men penalty, but they couldn’t quite beat Georgiev, despite a beautiful one-timer by Pavelski that seemed labeled for the inside of the post before Georgiev’s strong push intervened.

Then a quick Cogliano zone entry and feed to Brandon Duhaime happened in the high slot, and it was 4-2 on a shot through traffic, making Dallas fans collectively clench. But everything could have been defused with a Logan Stankoven chance after a terrible Jack Johnson point-to-point pass that caught his partner waist-high afforded Dallas a 2-on-1. Stankoven wisely took the shot he was given, but the puck jumped on edge, and he sent it into the lap of Georgiev.

Jared Bednar got bold at that point, and the Avs pulled the goalie with 4 minutes remaining. Fortune favors the bold, I’ve heard, and Artturi Lehkonen got a heapin’ helpin’ when he got stick-checked right before a shot, only to put a desperate shot off Nichushkin’s leg that deflected in, to make it 4-3 Dallas with over 3 minutes to go. The narratives, they were a-coming, and the Stars only made it worse when Wyatt Johnston got called for high-sticking Devon Toews, who definitely went through it tonight.

It was a moment that might end up defining the series. Two minutes to kill, with the deadliest offense in the league staring you down, looking for one more goal. Depending on how things end, you might well point to that as the chance Colorado had to grab momentum and steal another overtime comeback win, or you might end up bemoaning how it could have been. As it was, the Avs waited half the power play to pull their goalie, the Stars killed the penalty very efficiently, and Esa Lindell eventually hit the empty net that others couldn’t from 200 feet away.

***

I don’t have a lot else to say about this game. Dallas showed us that they do, in fact, need four goals to hold leads against Colorado, and I would argue that maybe nine goals isn’t a bad target at this point.

But in a way, Dallas is in the better position right now, despite preparing to head to Colorado. The Avs split two games in which Dallas easily could be up 2-0. Colorado’s goaltending isn’t looking strong, and the Stars appear to be less vulnerable than they were Tuesday. The resilience of Dallas is starting to show again, and I don’t know that Colorado will have many answers other than, “Get Nathan MacKinnon the heck away from Chris Tanev.” Not a bad plan, actually.