Game 3 Recap: Avalanche offense dries up in 4-1 loss

4 months ago  /  Mile High Hockey

Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports


Dallas now has a 2-1 series lead over Colorado. As the series between the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars shifted to Denver, each team was in search of the momentum to give them a series lead. While the Avalanche generated more offense than Dallas, a failure to convert on the power play led to this 4-1 loss and now 2-1 series deficit.
The Game
It was the start Colorado wanted as they put pressure on Dallas early and received three power plays in the first period. Unfortunately home team didn’t convert on one of them in that first frame. Despite outshooting their opposition 12-5, the Avalanche weren’t the team to get on the board first either. Twenty-year old Stars forward Logan Stankoven drew first blood at 18:39 and Dallas had a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play.
Dallas received their first power play near the middle of the second frame and when the Avalanche killed that off they generated some quick momentum thereafter. Mikko Rantanen found the back of the net at 10:34 on a loose puck in the crease after Nathan MacKinnon made a nice move to bring it to the net front and the game was suddenly tied.
Unfortunately before the end of the period Dallas would also net their own goal converted on a successful two-on-one in which Tyler Seguin chipped the puck past Alexandar Georgiev at 15:13. At the end of the period Colorado held the 23-13 shot advantage but were down 2-1 on the scoreboard with 20 minutes left to play.
They only needed one goal to change the game but the Avalanche couldn’t manage to find the equalizer. Neither team received a power play in the final frame and the Stars mustered the energy to hold serve. In the end Dallas received two empty net goals, each from Seguin and Stankoven, to arrive at the 4-1 Stars final.

Takeaways
Three first period power plays really set up the Avalanche to run away with the game but when those opportunities dried up later in the game so did the scoring. With the ease of putting up goals in previous games perhaps scoring in the playoffs was taken for granted but the Avalanche were also in this game to the end.
The lineup is starting to get top-heavy again with Rantanen leading all forwards at over 25 minutes of time on ice in a 60 minute regulation game. The propensity to shorten the bench significantly is starting to creep up again despite getting scoring from the likes of Brandon Duhaime and Joel Kiviranta just one game ago.
Alexandar Georgiev made some good stops in net in this contest and kept the team in the game having only given up two goals. With the Stars only kept to 21 shots on goal, this is still a .905 save percentage but he seems to have settled into the net better as time moves along.
Upcoming
Game 4 of this series is in Denver on Monday night at 7:30 p.m. nationally televised on ESPN....

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