DALLAS — Stars coach Peter DeBoer called out his top scorers after Colorado’s stars fueled a wild Game 1 comeback win.
They heard him.
Miro Heiskanen scored twice, while Roope Hintz and Tyler Seguin broke out of slumps to propel Dallas to a 5-3 victory Thursday night in Game 2 at American Airlines Center. This best-of-seven series is now even at 1-1, with Game 3 coming Saturday night at Ball Arena.
For the Avalanche, the push for another comeback started too late, but Colorado certainly made it interesting in the final period.
Joel Kiviranta, who returned from a lower-body injury after missing the past three games, ended Oettinger’s shutout bid 4:06 into the third period. Brandon Duhaime added another one with 12 minutes remaining. It was Duhaime’s first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal.
Valeri Nichushkin collected his ninth goal of this postseason when Artturi Lehkonen shot the puck off his leg and into the net with 3:44 remaining. The Avalanche also had a power play in the final three minutes but did not convert. Instead, the Stars iced it with an empty net goal from Esa Lindell.
Shortly after Colorado rallied from a three-goal deficit to win 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday night, DeBoer said his club needed more from its top scorers. Hintz had one goal and no assists in eight games this postseason before setting up the first goal Thursday night and scoring the second.
Heiskanen had a rough Game 1, including getting beat by Miles Wood on the overtime winner. He responded with a pair of power-play goals.
Seguin had no goals and three points in eight playoff games but collected his first while Dallas was shorthanded late in the second period to thwart any chance of Colorado making another three-goal comeback.
This was easily the sloppiest game by the Avalanche skaters of this postseason. Colorado took five penalties. Two were because someone shot the puck over the glass from inside the defensive zone. Two were too many men infractions. The fourth was a slashing penalty after Evgenii Dadonov got behind the Avs defense for a breakaway.
The Avs did create a handful of strong opportunities, but Oettinger had the first great game by a goaltender against Colorado in this postseason.
This game wasn’t without some controversy. Stars captain Jamie Benn crunched Devon Toews with a hit behind the Avalanche net early in the second period. Benn was originally assessed a major penalty, but the hit was deemed legal after an officials review and the Avs received no power play of any kind.
Toews left the game for about half of the second period but was able to return. Dadonov also appeared to be offsides on the breakaway that eventually led to Dallas’ second power-play goal.
But the Stars were also clearly the more desperate team after blowing the big lead in Game 1 and not wanting to fall behind 2-0 after two games at home for the second straight series.
Heiskanen had the lone goal of the first period. Similar to Game 1, the Avalanche ran into some early penalty trouble and it proved costly. Colorado killed off the first Dallas power play with little trouble, but the Stars converted on the second.
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There was a scramble for the puck in front of Alexandar Georgiev, and the Avs weren’t able to get it out of danger. When the penalty killers tried to reset into position, Hintz snapped a cross-ice pass to Heiskanen for a one-timer that Georgiev had no chance on at 14:46.
Hintz made it 2-0 less than two minutes in the second on a 3-on-2. Heiskanen scored his second extra-man goal at 15:54 of the period after a couple of quality chances for the Avs to get back in the game.
Then, when Colorado had a power play late in the period with a chance to mount another three-goal comeback, Seguin scored shorthanded to push the lead to 4-0.
Footnotes: Jonathan Drouin skated Wednesday for the first time since sustaining a skate blade cut on his leg in the last game of the regular season. He joined the team for the morning skate on Thursday. Avs coach Jared Bednar said he’s made a lot of progress in the past couple of days, but doesn’t have a timeline for when he will return.
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