Game 3 WCQF AfterThoughts: The Mason Marchment Experience™

Is your heart still pounding?

First, don’t forget to check out David and my postgame piece at D Magazine. We do them after every playoff game.

Second, don’t forget to smile. You probably only needed one of those reminders.

---

I believe Colin Blackwell used the word “gratuitous” in his media scrum after Game 2 when describing a bounce he got. That’s a good word for this one, too, right? I mean, Gabriel Landeskog, that’s a story bigger than any game, or really any series. But Tyler Seguin, scoring that goal, from Mason Marchment, after that penalty? That’s just lavish, decadent, even opulent (that’s a reach). I didn’t go to Harvard, but I know a gift when I see it, and that Seguin goal is going to bring joy to Stars fans for a long time.

Probably not as long as it will for him, though.

---

It’s 1:00am, so let’s just throw out some bullet points, and you can get to the game beats below—don’t miss the breakdown at the end of Rantanen and Harley’s massive contributions to the overtime goal.

• Lian Bichsel taking that puck was harrowing stuff, man. Not only because of where it hit him *cough*, but because of how good he was in this game. I think this is the sort of performance the Stars were imagining they might have gotten last year in the Edmonton series, when Chris Tanev’s ability to play was in question, and Bichsel was told he was next man up. He looked confident with the puck, aggressive with his body, and susceptible to nothing except surprise body checks from Joel Kiviranta and pucks to the wedding vegetables.

• Jake Oettinger was incredible tonight. Did he steal the game for Dallas? I wouldn’t go that far, but only because that downplays a lot of the good work Dallas did. But he stopped multiple breakaways, he found rebounds in crowds, and he answered every question Colorado asked when they weren’t giving Val Nichushkin shootout practice. (Can’t help but notice he didn’t elevate the puck this time, either. Nice move, though.)
  
  Oettinger’s blocker hand alone probably pitches a shutout against 20 NHL teams tonight in the regular season. Just an unreal night, man. What a performance in crunch time. The Stars probably need to give him a bit of an easier game at some point, but if they have to win a series like this, he’s showing he can do it. That’s everything you could have ever asked of him.

• Mikko Rantanen was everywhere tonight. He was blocking shots, creating rush chances, and generally accepting the task of doing all the hardest sort of forward work with no guarantee of glory.
  
  He got some on the winning goal—again, see below for that—but I was really impressed by his frustrated excellence in this one. The crowd was on him, Gabe Landeskog was on him with a hit early, and he even took a penalty that was probably borderline at best. But he didn’t get discouraged and check out of the game, like some superstars do. (Note MacKinnon just standing and staring back up the ice on Seguin’s goal, coasting to the bench.)

  

  Rantanen was important in this game.

• So was Mikael Granlund, who nearly fulfilled my “Big goal” prophecy when he hit the post on a breakaway. But Granlund was huge, nonetheless. Did you forget he was the original Big Forward Trade this year? Because he led the Stars forwards in ice time in this game.

• Speaking of leading in ice time, Nathan MacKinnon played 29:22 in this one to lead Colorado, and only 25 seconds shy of Thomas Harley for the lead on both squads. That includes 9:20 of power play time alone for MacKinnon. The Avalanche did not score a power play goal, you may recall. This is a fact you now get to do whatever you want with.

• Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin each scored goals in a 2-1 overtime playoff win over Colorado in Colorado in 2025. You wanna talk about gratuitous? It’s that.

• Colin Blackwell almost had a Kiviranta-esque moment when he got that chance in overtime, man. I really don’t think there’s anyone else you could compare such a goal to, if he had scored it. Somehow, I don’t think he minded the eventual outcome, though.

  • Hopefully Blackwell was hanging out and harassing Seguin during postgame interviews tonight. Turnabout is fair play.

• Dallas’s defensemen have been impossibly brilliant in this series. Yes, they need Heiskanen back, absolutely. But to do what they’ve done while they wait for Miro to get back healthy and ready? Well, that’s the spadework you dream about from depth defenders. Pick any of those six guys tonight, and you can find a big moment. Any of them. (Esa Lindell in particular.)

  ---

Finally, Mason Marchment. Oh man, Mason Marchment, who drew the ire of fans (that’s right, I saw your mean, mean tweets about him, shame on you) after taking a penalty in his third straight game. Mason Marchment, who looked for all the world like he had taken all the hard work the Stars had done to claw back into the game and thrown it away with a horrible four-minute penalty.

Mason Marchment, whose skating stride is unique in a sense not entirely complimentary. Mason Marchment, who opposing fans love to point to any time their blood boils and they need to find a reason why Dallas’s team is less ethical than their own.

Mason Marchment sat in the box, and watched. For four minutes, Marchment watched Esa Lindell make a save, Colin Blackwell get denied, and Nathan MacKinnon get increasingly careless.

That all came after Marchment had to go to the room after regulation and sit there for 15 minutes with his buddies and friends, knowing he may have blown the whole thing for them. Imagine what those 15 minutes must have felt like, for Marchment.

And then imagine what it must have felt like when Toews tried to knock him off the puck and Marchment refused to yield.

No. Not this time.

Imagine what it felt like to see Seguin coming, to feed the puck to him, only to see it go into his skate, at first. And then imagine what it must have felt like for Marchment to see Seguin kick the puck to his stickblade in stride, like he’s done ten thousand times in his life, and score one of the goals of his life, five feet away from you.

Marchment tracks down Seguin, who had continued on in pure bliss, finally backing into the boards to welcome back the teammates who welcomed him back just a week ago.

And Seguin sees him coming, and he jumps. and Marchment wraps him up, keeping his skates off the ground for just a bit longer.

In that moment, I would imagine that Marchment still felt more weightless than Seguin.

---

It’s been said by everyone imaginable, but let me just add briefly: it was very cool to see Colorado Avalanche fans welcome back Gabriel Landeskog after three years away. Sports are at their best when they show and tell us stories of remarkable journeys. It’s hard to find a more heartwarming journey than a three-year recovery from a debilitating injury in order to get back to the highest level again.

And of course, his knocking over Mikko Rantanen in his first shift was the biggest bone imaginable he could’ve thrown to the crowd. They loved every minute of it. It is nice that they had those moments.

Lineups

The Stars began the game with this lineup:

Granlund-Hintz-Rantanen
Marchment-Duchene-Seguin
Benn-Johnston-Dadonov
Bäck-Steel-Blackwell

Lindell-Ceci
Harley-Lyubushkin
Bichsel-Petrovic

Oettinger

Pete DeBoer said after the game that he thought Rantanen looked better on that line with Granlund and Hintz, and I think that’s still the best spot for now. The thing about depth is sometimes, your top line isn’t going to feel like a top line, but that doesn’t mean it’s not doing good work. Again, look at what MacKinnon has done and not done at 5-on-5 in this series. Not every line is going to get glory, but Rantanen will need to have a Moment here soon if he doesn’t want to keep answering questions about the F-word (frustration).

Gabriel Landeskog drew back into the lineup for Colorado in place of Miles Wood. You may have heard about this already.

On defense, the Avalanche made one more change from last game, swapping out veteran Erik Johnson for Sam Malinksi on the third pairing.

Game Beats

Landeskog started the game, and he put a hit/knock-down on Mikko Rantanen in his first shift. Talk about playing to the crowd, eh? Jamie Benn would more than reciprocate with a far bigger hit on Brock Nelson three minutes in, if you care about such things.

Rantanen almost picked a puck off Blackwood’s pads early after the Stars jammed it into the crease, but no such luck was to be had, and the period began to settle down after its raucous opening, with a couple of icings dampening the energy a bit further.

Ryan Lindgren took the game’s first penalty when he sent Wyatt Johnston into the boards (after Evgenii Dadonov did a great job sorting out a tricky zone entry when the puck slowed down on a streaking Johnston), and the Stars had their best early shot at taking some energy out of the building.

The opposite happened, however. Despite a gorgeous little play by Harley to keep the puck in a the blue line, an overzealous Rantanen got nailed for tripping after his pass got intercepted by Val Nichushkin, and Rantanen’s leg hit Nichushkin’s and took him down to make it 4-on-4. It wasn’t a clear tripping call, but Rantanen did cause Nichushkin to go down, and he got the puck as a result. You can see what would lead to that call, is all I’m saying.

Nichushkin then got open after Thomas Harley got picked in the defensive zone by Brock Nelson, who pretty much exhibited the textbook definition of “interference” by subtly coasting right into Harley’s path and, well, interfering with him. Nichushkin then found himself with a lane to the net, and he took the space, made some nice moves, and used his enormous reach to tuck the puck around a suddenly lonely Jake Oettinger who looked like he was thinking Nuke was going five-hole, and it was 1-0.

To be clear: that’s a penalty, and Harley shouldn’t have to make a meal of the pick by Nelson by falling down or whatever to draw the call. But I do think that if Harley doesn’t pull up a bit there, he’s more likely to get the call. Everybody on earth knows Nelson is cutting into Harley’s path there to free up the puck carrier, but give Nelson credit for how well he executed the play. The officials chose not to call it for what it was because it wasn’t put on a silver platter to call, and the Avalanche took advantage of the play.

If you get a chance, go back and watch the first intermission, second segment, where Brent Severyn broke down the play in detail. It’s a great bit of education about coverage, routes, and other stuff. (It’ll lower your blood pressure, too.)

The Stars got another chance themselves on a neutral zone turnover by MacKinnon to Rantanen, but the puck didn’t cooperate the moment of truth, and Rantanen’s rush in on Blackwood turned into a dribbling shot that was easily covered.

You could see the frustration from Rantanen, who dearly wanted to quiet the crowd, but the fizzled chance ended up making a trifecta of early tribulation along with the Landeskog hit and the penalty call.

Rantanen got another chance when he got the puck at the side of the net and tried to pull it above the goalie line and roof it, but he couldn’t quite find a hole in the wall Blackwood built.

Jack Drury had another chance to continue the fourth line’s contributions for the Avs, but his chance in the low slot went wide, giving the Stars a reprieve. For once, Dallas felt like the team controlling the majority of play, with their opponent being more opportunistic.

Matt Duchene dealt a huge hit on Logan O’Connor late in the first, leading to a rush up the ice. The hitting from Dallas really has been noticeable in the last two games, and honestly, I think it’s good for them. Not that the hitting itself generates a ton of chances, but I think it’s pulled them into games in ways they haven’t always been able to do as quickly.

The penalty calls in the first period started to aggravate the Dallas bench, and when Colin Blackwell got a stick into MacKinnon’s skates to bring him down (with the puck sitting between Mackinnon’s skates after he fumbled it and collided with his teammate).

In a weird way, I think it ended up being good for Dallas, as the Avalanche ended the first period with a power play that Dallas killed pretty efficiently, and the intermission arrived with Colorado being pretty lucky to have a lead at all, given how badly they were outplayed for most of the 20 minutes.

Second Period

Jake Oettinger kicked off the second period with a soccer goalie save, after Sam Girard tried a wrap-around that leaked out to Brock Nelson, who then found Oettinger’s blocker:

It was a brilliant desperation save.

Now, did it seem like the Stars got hosed twice more on non-calls on interference early in this period? Yes, it sure did seem like that. And did the Stars promptly take another penalty when a puck bounced right to Matt Duchene on a rush before everyone else had hopped off the ice? Yes, they sure did.

But again, the Stars killed the penalty, and I started to think back to Game 2, when the Stars lost a lot of momentum after repeatedly squandering power plays. Could the same be in store for Colorado in this one?

Well, the Stars did their best to do the opposite, after all five skaters wound up at the far blue line, only for the puck to be cleared back to a wide-open Logan O’Connor in the neutral zone. O’Connor took the puck down the wall and in on Oettinger, but his backhand effort was stopped by a smothering blocker save from Oettinger, who spent the first half of the game waiting for the rest of his teammates to catch up to his level of play.

Things went south in a horrible way after a Joel Kiviranta hit on Lian Bichsel started a shift that ended when a point shot hit Bichsel in a painful spot around the pelvic bone, and he went down in clear agony, drawing a whistle. He had to be helped off the ice, and he went down the tunnel, still in pain. Any time a hockey player as tough as Bichsel goes down like that, it’s worrisome.

Roope Hintz embodied an increased level of effort from Dallas that started with a great fourth-line hustle shift that led the way. Hintz’s part came a minute or two later when he beat out an icing, and that led to a good look for the top line, and later, a look for Rantanen from the slot that he ripped high blocker, only for Blackwood to just catch up to it.

Bichsel would return later in the second period and take a test-run during a stoppage before confirming things were good to go, but his return highlighted the absence of Bäck, who had left the bench as well. Bäck would not return for the rest of the period, and Rantanen would take his spot, double shifting on the top and bottom lines.

His return was almost a triumphant one when some great work by Jamie Benn and company won a puck in the corner and got it to Bichsel in the slot, where he fired it glove side.

Blackwood’s glove was there, however, and the score remained stubbornly 1-0.

Bichsel’s defense partner got a similarly great chance right after that, but Petrovic’s puck went through a crowd and doinked off Blackwood and just wide of the net, because apparently the hockey gods never love a team’s third defense pairing as much as you think they ought to.

I don’t always highlight goaltending as well as I ought to, but let me just say that Oettinger really was great in this game, making some big saves on too-open chances by Colorado forwards in key moments to keep the game close.

The puck at one point got trapped along the corner in the Stars’ zone for nigh on 30 seconds, with the referees (who had blown down two pucks along the wall early in the game) repeatedly stating that he was not going to blow the whistle this time, which is more in keeping with modern officiating. When the puck finally did get pulled out, of the pile, it led to a great chance for Lindgren at the other circle, only for Mikko Rantanen to make a crucial block at the last.

The other thing that was surprisingly frequent in this game was icings, of which there were over a dozen in the first two periods, I think. It tricked you into thinking the game was slowing down, but just then, in the final minute, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikael Granlund exchanged breakaway chances, with Oettinger’s blocker stopping one, only for Seguin to find Granlund at the far blue line right after that.

And the left post repelled Granlund, and we went to the second intermission with the same 1-0 score after a better period from the Avalanche, but even more better (I know what I said) goaltending from Oettinger to negate it.

Once again, the Stars would go into the third period down a goal. Would this time have similar magic awaiting them?

Third Period

Lehkonen found MacKinnon for a chance 90 seconds in that found the glass, and that set a bit of a tone in the third, as Oettinger had to come up with a save on Nelson once again after a brilliant pass by Landeskog to find him. Nelson, thankfully, took too long to dig the puck out and fire it to make the most of the opportunity.

Oskar Bäck would return at the start of the third period, which was a welcome sight for Dallas. Lian Bichsel also looked entirely himself early on, with some monstrous work behind his net to dish out a couple of hits and rip a puck free to start the transition up the ice.

Things got dicey six minutes in, when the third defense pairing got trapped in the zone for two minutes, but a Cale Makar shot deflected just wide, and Dallas eventually cleared. In fact, not long after that, the Stars would get a power play, for what felt like the first time in the game, given the abbreviated nature of their original chance.

And, yeah, this is pretty much holding all day long, as Artturi Lehkonen decided to try to take Harley on a do-si-do by interlocking arms in what I assume was an attempt to grab Harley’s stick and fall down to draw a hooking call.

The officials got the call right, and Dallas had their chance.

Initially, Hintz took a puck out of a pile and jammed it to the net, and Blackwood took a while to cover it with bodies everywhere. But after that, Dallas struggled to get another puck to the net, and the Avs killed the remainder of the penalty with less fuss than muss, but killed it all the same. (Do not ask me to differentiate fuss and muss, please.)

Nathan MacKinnon then took a pretty unnecessary tripping call by slyly putting his stick underneath Blackwell’s skates as the puck was being brought up the wall.

MacKinnon tried to plead his case to the officials—not sure why he’d think that would work—but he sat all the same, and Dallas’s second kick at the can would end up landing square on MacKinnon’s backside.

Jamie Benn would send the puck back up to the point, but he would get it right back with some mustard on it, and he sent it perfectly up and against the grain to beat Blackwood, breaking a 19-game goalless streak for himself in the process. Good timing.

It was a huge goal by the captain at a massive time, and it couldn’t have felt more vindicating, after the way the game had gone. Jamie Benn punched the air, dropped his shoulder, and let out a roar at Thomas Harley. It was pretty big.

But the Stars had work to do right after it.

The crowd continued with a “REF YOU SUCK” chant after the goal, and you wonder if the energy got to the officials, because the subsequent tripping call on Duchene was pretty rough, considering that Nichushkin had already lost the puck and was turning back and also that Duchene didn’t actually trip him. But after the two calls for Dallas, you almost felt that the officials would prefer to even things back out, if possible, and they did so after Nichushkin lost his skates for the second time.

Still, things nearly broke for Dallas when Steel led a shorthanded rush with Oskar Bäck, and his cross would find Bäck’s stick, only for the tip to be sent just wide of the net.

Dallas’s penalty kill continued its excellence, however, and the ice would tilt back to level without Colorado truly threatening during their biggest chance.

As the third wound down, your nerves surely tightened. The teams started getting into overtime mode, with shifts shortening and shot lanes closing faster than ever. Both sides absolutely refused to get caught on the wrong side of the puck, and Colorado was content to wait and just fling some point shots with whatever traffic they could get.

In a game like that, every chance is precious, and Ilya Lyubushkin knew it. After a fourth-line icing by Dallas, Lyubushkin pounced on a loose puck after a face-off and raced up the ice with Makar trailing, getting the puck into crease with a backhand effort, but nothing came of it. The Avs created a similar effort shortly afterward, with bodies crashing the crease and Oettinger tensing up to look for the puck. He would find it.

Rantanen channeled a bit of Brenden Morrow with a hit on Josh Manson late in the third, trying to set a tone for what was to come. Unfortunately, Mason Marchment channeled a bit of Mason Marchment, high-sticking Brock Nelson who was leaning over so far Marchment’s stick could have played the puck legally.

Nonetheless, he opened up Nelson’s face and send the Stars to four minutes, they hoped, of penalty-killing time at the worst of possible moments.

Colorado didn’t want to wait for overtime, though. They came out with a ton of energy on the power play, and a couple of loose pucks with tons of bodies around the crease lurked like live grenades, with one having to be scooped out of an empty crease by Lindell just before it was slammed home by every member of the Avalanche.

Yet again, the Stars would follow the script of Game 2. But they apparently got bored with only having to kill a little bit of a penalty to start overtime, so they gave themselves a bigger challenge: start the extra time with 3:21 of shorthanded business to deal with. Hoo boy.

Overtime

MacKinnon got the puck taken away twice in the first minute of overtime, as the Stars’ PK looked entirely ready to deal with the enormous task before them. In fact, they looked more than capable, as Granlund rushed up with Blackwell and drew the pressure, then fed Blackwell for a clean look that would have been so storybook nobody would ever believe you saw it happen.

But the shot went into Blackwood’s person. Oh man. Oh, oh, man. Would that ever have been something. Would that ever. You probably shouted at the television, didn’t you? We can be honest here.

After that nightmarish moment, the Avalanche top six continued their collective ineptitude in the last minute of the power play, when both Nečas and Lehkonen missed pretty great looks.

Or did they? In fact, Esa Lindell made a heroic stop to equal Oettinger’s blocker earlier in the game, denying Lehkonen on a look he’ll be seeing for three days and nights.

And so the Stars, impossibly, escaped the Marchment minor with a hockey game still to be decided. Their penalty kill outdueled Colorado’s for the first time this series, and it would mean something.

But first, Colorado’s fourth line came looking for another big goal, only to find Mikko Rantanen, Superstar, there to block another shot away.

It was a frustrating game at times for Rantanen, but not because he wasn’t doing good things. More because he was involved in everything, and he didn’t get the catharsis of a goal. Or at least, not directly.

Look here.

This is Mikko Rantanen, over a minute after his shift began. Ilya Lyubushkin (to the right) has just closed down MacKinnon along the wall, and now Jonathan Drouin has just jumped over the boards, ready to go. A fresh Drouin is going to attempt to get the puck to Cale Makar to continue the possession.

He fails. Rantanen is probably grabbing Drouin’s stick a bit here, as veteran players know you can get away with doing in these situations. But even so, it’s absurd how controlled Rantanen is in ripping the puck away and clearing the zone.

Even a gassed Mikko Rantanen is an unfair task for most players, and he shows why. Rantanen uses his skates, his hands, his body, and I guess his Moose-like wherewithal to bull the puck up the ice.

And then Cale Makar tries to swat it away, but Rantanen isn’t so gassed that he can’t dangle a bit, even now. Whoops, close one there.

Rantanen backhands it along the boards for Marchment, who is taking Toews down the ice as he wins the race to the puck. And you remember what happened after that.

Mason Marchment takes a big shoulder from Devon Toews, who is a very good defenseman, and who tries to buckle Marchment. But instead of falling down, Marchment gives as good as he gets, leaning into the hit to stay upright after the force subsides.

The two frames collide, but neither falls. And Marchment protects the puck, and extends it out, where Toews can’t get it, with a reach that has made his NHL career what it is.

And he sees Tyler Seguin, his good buddy and linemate, coming downhill, having come off the bench for Rantanen, and beating Cale Makar to the scoring area. Drouin has recovered and is blocking a pass to Thomas Harley(!), who has sense the importance of this chance, and is at the back post to draw Drouin away from Seguin’s shooting lane.

Marchment hits Seguin, but not his stick blade. Instead, it misses, but Seguin doesn’t try to force a shot that won’t have enough on it. He kicks it with his skate, back to his tape, like elite scorers do.

(I don’t know why that looks like a Phil Collins music video.) Seguin elevates the puck—how many times have players not done that when you desperately need them to?—and beats Blackwood, who is is full “OH NO OH NO OH NO” mode, covering everything down low, but leaving something up high, and also kind of the entire near post, actually?

Seguin finds it, and wins it. Game over.

---

Man, these overtime wins are pretty fun, right?

Again, if you can manage to suppress your exuberance for a bit, just imagine how this feels if you’re Colorado. You won Game 1 by a decent margin, and now you’ve dropped two overtime games in a row after your power play spilled a cauldron of Kevin’s chili all over the carpet in a gilt-edge chance to win the game.

This series, really, could be 3-0. It was in your control.

But the thing is, with the Stars’ penalty kill, it’s never really out of their control. Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift and all that. The Stars have gotten some bad bounces in this series, but they’ve made the bigger plays when it’s mattered. Playoff series have been decided by far less.

Now the Stars have to do what Jake Oettinger—who is as much a hero as any goal-scorer in this game—said they have to do: take a chokehold on this series.

They will have their chance after two days off in Colorado. We’ll see you Saturday.