One of the wildest Stanley Cup Playoffs nights in the history of Ball Arena turned on one of the craziest own goals any hockey fan is ever going to see.
Nathan MacKinnon was credited with the go-ahead goal at 9:04 of the third period, and the Colorado Avalanche staved off elimination with a chaotic 7-4 victory in Thursday night’s Game 6 of this opening-round series that has more than lived up to the hype.
Game 7 will be Saturday in Dallas.
“I thought we played an awesome game the whole time,” MacKinnon said. “(Jake) Oettinger was amazing. … We’ve got to be a little more responsible defensively, but we did enough to win, I thought. We created a ton and really carried the play.”
MacKinnon charged toward the Dallas net with only his left hand on his stick. He flung the puck toward the edge of the crease. Stars forward Sam Steel tried to chip it to his right and out of immediate danger. Instead, Colin Blackwell — the hero of Game 2 — shouldered the puck back toward the Stars’ net, and goalie Jake Oettinger couldn’t corral it.
It was officially MacKinnon’s sixth goal of the series. It helped complete a third-period comeback after ex-Avs star Mikko Rantanen had given the Stars the lead with a four-point middle period. MacKinnon added assists on both empty-net goals and now has 10 points in the series.
Valeri Nichushkin scored his second goal of the night to even this contest at 4-4. Captain Gabe Landeskog shot the puck from the right wing, then Nichushkin kicked the rebound to his stick and banged home the rebound with 13:58 remaining.
He had just one goal in the series before this. A year ago, Nichushkin was the hottest goal scorer in the NHL until he was suspended ahead of Game 4 in the second round against the Stars.
His frustration has shown at times during this series, including a stick-smashing at the morning skate ahead of Game 6.
“I think it says a lot,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Nichushkin’s breakout performance. “He kind of did the same thing in Game 4, so I’ll have a conversation with him tomorrow and figure out how we can get him to do that again in Dallas. He’s been exceptional in the home games and frustrated in the road games.”
Dallas roared back from a 2-0 hole and eventually grabbed the lead during a chaotic second period. Rantanen factored into all four Stars goals. He assisted on the first three — two by Roope Hintz and one by Mikael Granlund — as the middle frame became a Finnish fiesta inside Ball Arena.
The first one, credited to Hintz, was unfortunate for the Avs. Mackenzie Blackwood lost his stick with Dallas on the power play, then Charlie Coyle ended up knocking the puck into his net while crashing to the ice.
The next three needed no good fortune. Granlund got behind Cale Makar on the second. Hintz swooped in on the right wing and got by a stumbling Artturi Lehkonen on the third one. Rantanen fooled Blackwood with a shot along the ice from between the circles on the go-ahead score.
When the Avs were bleeding goals in the second period, they created some of the best chances of the series. Makar made a beautiful play to set up Martin Necas for a tap-in as Colorado regained the lead at 3-2.
Necas hit the post later in the period, and Josh Manson found the iron as well. Jake Oettinger made multiple incredible saves. After two periods, the Avs had 37 scoring chances, but the Stars had still forged ahead.
Rantanen and Hintz became the first pair of teammates to collect four points each in a period in Stanley Cup Playoffs history.
“I thought we played hard all night, no passengers,” said Landeskog, who had two assists and now has four points in four games after missing 1,032 days with right knee issues. “The first 30 minutes of that game, I thought we were real solid, and then I thought we started to get a little loose with some of our coverage.
“It felt like we kept peppering shots on Oettinger, but he had a good night. … But, we kept fighting. There was no quit.”
The Avs wasted little time pushing the pace and dictating terms in the opening period. Colorado racked up 36 shot attempts in the first 20 minutes, including 10 high-danger scoring chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. Just as impressive, the Avalanche yielded only one high-danger chance despite turning the period into a track meet.
Just like in Dallas for Game 5, the home team collected a two-goal lead in the opening period with the help of some fortunate bounces.
Dallas defenseman Esa Lindell got a piece of Nichushkin’s shot from the right wing, and it was heading for the left corner … until it hit Ilya Lyubushkin’s skate and took a right turn into the net at 6:29 of the first.
Makar lined up a one-timer blast from the right circle late in the second period, and whiffed. But, he got just enough of it to send a dribbler toward the net, and Lehkonen stepped in front of a defenseman to sweep it into the net at 18:40.
“I thought we competed to win tonight,” Bednar said. “That’s what we did. Very similar to Game 4 in our building. Both were must-wins for me, and our team responded.
“Hopefully, we do it one more time.”
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