How the Avalanche forced Game 7 vs. Dallas with wild 7-4 win: Takeaways

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DENVER — Colin Blackwell put his hands on his head. Sam Steel covered his face with both gloves. Both looked to the heavens — well, the Ball Arena rafters — in utter disbelief.

This? This is how we get to a Game 7? Oh, well. The hockey world will take it.

Nathan MacKinnon got credit for the goal, but it was the Stars who put the decisive puck past Jake Oettinger. The Stars goaltender had stopped a MacKinnon drive to the net, and the puck lay on the doorstep. Steel was the first one there, and he swept it out of the slot, firing it straight to the side. But Blackwell — the Game 2 overtime hero — was standing right there. The puck hit his shoulder and fluttered over a flailing Oettinger’s glove. That stood as the game-winner in a 7-4 Avalanche victory (Colorado added two empty-netters) that was full of scoring chances and wild momentum swings and some of the fastest, most frenetic action of these, or any, playoffs.

For a game this spectacular in a series this good to come down to an own goal doesn’t seem right, but this matchup — a true clash of titans in the first round — had to go seven games.

Colorado was in deep trouble entering the third period, down a goal after Dallas scored four times in a truly wild second period. The Avalanche were staring down a second straight six-game los to the rival Stars, and were looking at a third straight early postseason exit since their 2022 championship. But Valeri Nichushkin scored his second goal of the game at 6:02 of the third period, knocking in a rebound from Gabriel Landeskog (who had two points on the night, and has four in four games since dramatically returning from a nearly three-year absence).

Then, three minutes later, MacKinnon made his move and Colorado got its second incredibly fortunate bounce of the game, and third of the series. It undermined a terrific performance by Oettinger, who finished with 41 saves, nullified a pair of four-point games by Dallas’ Rantanen and Roope Hintz, and sent the series back to Dallas for Saturday’s Game 7 at American Airlines Center.

Ferocious first

The Stars had exactly the kind of start they wanted. There were seven whistles in the first 68 seconds and Dallas seemed to have early control of the game. The crowd enthusiasm was waning, and the Avalanche looked a little tense, a little tight.

One fortunate bounce changed everything.

At the 6:29 mark of the first period, Landeskog had a clean zone entry and left the puck for Brock Nelson, who slung a cross-slot pass to a charging Nichushkin. Esa Lindell made a good play on Nichushkin’s shot, getting a stick on it, and sending it well wide of the net. But on its way, the puck ticked off Ilya Lyubushkin’s skate and past Oettinger for the first goal of the game. It was reminiscent of Game 1, when the Avalanche broke the ice with a similarly fluky goal, as Artturi Lehkonen inadvertently kicked it in while being dragged to the ice by Mavrik Bourque.

From there, the Avalanche absolutely took over, all those pregame nerves that were evident in a tense and quiet post-skate locker room instantly melting away. Cale Makar started dancing, Marty Necas was doing spin-o-ramas, and MacKinnon went on the attack. By the time Lehkonen beat Cody Ceci to a rebound — Oettinger was particularly springy in the first period — to make it 2-0, the Avalanche were in complete control. Colorado finished the period with 20 shots on goal — and held a ridiculous 10-1 edge in high-danger scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick — and Oettinger and the Stars were somewhat fortunate to only be down two.

Spectacular second

Where to even begin?

The entire tenor of the game changed with a sequence in the opening minute of the second period. Makar, the Norris and Lindsay finalist who’s still looking for his first goal of the series, walked in on Oettinger and fired from point-blank range. But Oettinger made the save, and Brock Nelson promptly took a foolish tripping penalty in the offensive zone seconds later. Then, 23 seconds into the ensuing power play, Hintz’s rebound attempt was knocked past Mackenzie Blackwood — who had lost his stick — by a sliding Charlie Coyle. What could have been a 3-0 game was now 2-1, and one of the most frantic periods imaginable was on.

By the end of the period, Hintz and Mikko Rantanen each had two goals and two assists. Counting Mikael Granlund’s equalizer less than three minutes after Hintz’s power-play goal, Finns had nine points for the Stars in the second period. Rantanen, in particular, was sensational against his old team. He made maybe the best play of a period full of brilliant plays from center ice. Three minutes after Necas scored a backdoor goal off a beautiful one-touch feed from Makar, Rantanen got the puck along the wall between the benches and then muscled his way to a primary assist. First, he shoved aside Samuel Girard with one arm without losing the puck, and then didn’t even move as Girard tried to can-opener him between the legs. He then feathered a slick little pass between Girard and MacKinnon to Hintz, who beat Lehkonen down the ice and sniped it to tie the game at 3-3. Hintz and Rantanen combined on another goal late in the period, sending a shell-shocked Colorado team into the locker room.

There isn’t enough bandwidth on the Internet to list all the scoring chances both ways. Oettinger was magnificent, stopping 15 of 16 shots in the period. His swatting of a point-blank chance by Jack Drury at the 11:30 mark was a highlight. It was a breathless, track-meet style of play. In theory, it’s a style that Colorado would probably welcome and Dallas would prefer to avoid. But the Stars embraced the chaos and beat the speedy Avs at their own game.

Oettinger shines

It was a comparison Pete DeBoer was wary of making, but he made it anyway. While discussing Oettinger’s penchant for getting stronger as a series goes on, DeBoer brought up Martin Brodeur — one of the great clutch goalies in NHL history — as a like-minded netminder. A 40-year-old Brodeur led DeBoer’s New Jersey Devils to the Stanley Cup Final in 2012.

“Great goalies have that mindset where they raise their level at the most important time,” DeBoer said. “I saw it (with Brodeur) multiple times, but I remember we were down in the first round that year to Florida and had to come back and win Game 6 in overtime and Game 7 in double overtime. Both nights, regardless of what the score had been or what had happened during that game, he just found another level at the most important times. And you realized why he had the career he had. I think great goaltenders have that mental edge.”

Oettinger has the numbers to back it up. In the first two rounds last spring, against Vegas and Colorado, Oettinger posted a .933 save percentage in Games 4-7. In 2023, he had a .916 in such games. In his unforgettable series against Calgary in 2022 as a rookie, Oettinger had a .947 save percentage over the final four games.

“It’s a mental toughness,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s a competitiveness to rise to the occasion the more important the moment gets. He’s got that.”

His numbers aren’t exactly flawless either. Last spring, Oettinger allowed nine goals on just 64 shots as the Edmonton Oilers won Games 4-6 to win the Western Conference final. And a 6-0 loss to Vegas in the decisive Game 6 of the 2023 Western Conference final will be a tough one to forget. But his performance Thursday night was a doozy, no matter what the numbers say.

Bichsel hurt

There was a scary moment early in the second period as Lian Bichsel lost an edge while battling for a puck with Drury. Bischel went hard into the boards and lay motionless on the ice for a couple of minutes before slowly being helped up and off the ice. Somewhat shockingly, he returned for the third period.

Bischel, a hulking rookie, has been a physical presence for the Stars all series, helping to fill the void left by Miro Heiskanen.

(Photo: Matthew Stockman / Getty Images)

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