DENVER — The Stanley Cup playoff games so often are about one team being able to impose its style over another.
The Dallas Stars on Saturday night found comfort in a low-scoring affair, especially playing a disciplined third period to protect a one-goal lead for most of it, and frustrating the high-octane Colorado Avalanche in a 4-1 victory to take a 2-1 series lead.
It was close until Tyler Seguin and Logan Stankoven scored empty-net goals, the second goal of the game for each player.
The last thing the Stars want in this series is a wide-open track meet, and they were able to get a game on their terms on Saturday.
The Avalanche were unlucky in many ways to be behind on this night, as they out-chanced the visitors, especially in the opening 40 minutes.
Jake Oettinger was outsanding with a 28-save performance in the Dallas net but part of the story, too, was the Stars’ defensemen boxing out and limiting rebound chances for the dangerous Avs forwards.
Stars are opportunistic
The Stars scored late in each of the opening periods, twice very much against the flow of play as far, with the Avalanche getting more offensive looks but Dallas finding a way to break through. First, Stankoven, a rookie, made it 1-0 with 1:21 to go in the opening period, with his wrist shot from the high slot catching a piece but beating Alexandar Georgiev. It came in a period in which the Avs out shot the Stars 11-5.
Rinse and repeat. The Avs were all over the Stars in the second period, and did finally tie the game 1-1, but Seguin then finished off a passing play from Evgenii Dadonov with 4:47 left to make it 2-1 and silence the crowd at Ball Arena.
Somehow, the Stars went to the dressing room up 2-1 in a game in which they were being outshot 23-12, and according to Natural Stat Trick, the scoring chances were 28-12 Avs overall, 22-9 Avs at five-on-five.
So yes, opportunistic indeed were the Stars, but when your goalie is at the top of his game, that’s possible.
Jake Oettinger shines
I was chatting with Oettinger, the Stars goalie, after the morning skate on Saturday morning about next season’s Four Nations best-on-best event and it is something he said he would love to be part of. But he also acknowledged it’s a crowded crease for Team USA, so he wasn’t sure whether he would get his name called or not.
And no doubt, with Connor Hellebuyck, Thatcher Demko and Jeremy Swayman also in the mix, there’s heavy competition for that Team USA net next February.
But here’s the thing: playoff performances carry huge weight in those decisions. Oettinger help steal Game 3, and so far he’s faring better than Hellebuycuk did in the first round against this same, dangerous Avalanche lineup.
Now, it’s not that simple, of course. The Stars are playing better in these playoffs than the Jets did. But all things being equal, if the Stars find a way to win this series, Oettinger will have been a big part of that, and that can only raise his Team USA stock.
He sure looked Team USA-worthy on this night, that’s for sure.
Georgiev did his part in goal for Colorado. He wasn’t nearly as busy, but made some notable stops including a first-period breakaway stop on Jamie Benn and a big-time save from point-blank range on Sam Steel midway through the third period to keep it a one-goal game. Steel looked to the heavens after missing that chance, no doubt thinking he had the 3-1 goal.
Bednar tweaks top lines
On the heels of Avalanche coach Jared Bednar calling out Nathan MacKinnon’s top line after Game 2, which is rare for the Avs head coach to do, the top two lines had a different look for Game 3. Playoff goal machine Valeri Nichushkin swapped spots with Artturi Lehkonen.
Having Nichushkin on the second line with Casey Mittelstadt and Zach Parise help spread out the offense, but I suspect it was also Bednar’s way of a workaround on Chris Tanev’s effective matchup work on Colorado’s top line. It forces the Stars to pick between wanting Tanev on MacKinnon still or worrying about Nichushkin’s team-leading nine playoff goals on the second line.
Predictably, the Stars still tried to have Tanev out on the ice against MacKinnon as much as possible, although without last line change, it wasn’t as easy to do as in the opening two games in Dallas. But the by-product of not always being able to get that matchup Saturday night was that Tanev also got some shifts out against Nichushkin.
As far as Bednar challenging his top forwards to step up in Game 3, MacKinnon had four shots on goal in the first period alone after being limited to three overall in Game 2.
And it was MacKinnon’s brilliant offensive-zone rush midway through the second period which finally got Colorado on the board. A thing of beauty it was, MacKinnon deking around Tanev no less and almost beating Oettinger before Mikko Rantanen put in the rebound, tying the game 1-1.
The goal gave the home team momentum and the Avs kept coming in waves. Nichushkin nearly made it 2-1 about four minutes later, his one-timer from a prime scoring area in the slot beating Oettinger but glancing off the outside post.
It was wave after wave for the Avs, until Seguin scored for the Stars very much against the flow of things.
Clear special-teams edge
Colorado’s dangerous power play, which produced a pair of key goals in the Avs’ Game 1 victory, has now gone 0-for in consecutive games, which is a pretty big part of this series.
The Avs went 0-for-3 with the man advantage on Saturday night after going 0-for-3 in Game 2 at Dallas. Colorado relies on its lethal power play to generate offense and it goes without saying it’s going to be difficult to win this series without that unit producing. Credit the Stars’ penalty kill, which made adjustments after Game 1 and has obviously stepped up two games in a row.
Road kings vs. home kings
One of the things that Stars head coach Peter DeBoe mentioned a few times in the lead-up to Game 3 was that it would be interesting to see how the NHL’s No. 1 road team this regular season, Dallas, fared versus the NHL’s No. 1 home team this regular season, Colorado.
The Stars also won two huge games in Vegas in the opening round, and as DeBeor said Saturday, they’re just a team that seems to feed off the energy off road buildings and are at ease in intimidating environments.
And while they got outshot and out-chanced in Game 3, the Stars didn’t show any panic in their game and stayed patient, waiting for their chances.
It didn’t hurt that when Dallas scored its goals, one could absolutely detect a healthy presence of Stars fans in Ball Arena. Many of them were up in the nose-bleed seats, close to us in the press box. Stars fans travel well apparently.
The road team, by the way, has now won two of the opening three games in this series.
(Photo: Ashley Potts / NHLI via Getty Images)
