Makar is ‘Ready to Go’ for Game 1 Against the Stars
Avalanche Excited to Have Gabe Landeskog Back
Full Schedule: Round 1, Avalanche vs Stars
Game 1 on Saturday: Avalanche at Stars at 6:30 pm MT.
Landeskog’s Potential Return Has NHL Talking
Deen’s Daily: Blackwood Talks Nichushkin Friendship; Playoff Schedule is Here
Deen’s Daily: Landeskog Full Practice Participant; Playoff Bracket is Set — Avs/Stars Game 1 on Saturday
Deen’s Daily: More Landeskog Talk; West Race Wraps Up — Eighth Seed in East Up For Grabs
Deen’s Daily: Demidov Lives Up To Hype; Will Landeskog Be Ready For Playoffs?
Deen’s Daily: Avs Are First Team To Finish Regular Season
More Than Teammates: Inside the Friendship of Valeri Nichushkin and Mackenzie Blackwood (+)
10 Observations: Charlie Coyle’s Offensive Production Takes Off (+)
Fearless, Fierce, and Playoff-Bound: Parker Kelly’s New Role With the Avalanche (+)
10 Observations: Avalanche Need Something, Anything, To Play For Before Playoffs (+)
10 Observations: It’s All Business For the Avalanche These Days — The Kings Had No Chance (+)
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DALLAS — The first taste of playoff hockey for Mackenzie Blackwood was nearly perfect. The Avalanche’s starting netminder was the star of the show on Saturday, making 23 saves to help lift Colorado to a 5-1 victory in Game 1 over the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center.
Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist, and the Avs scored three times in the later stages of the third period to put the game away. But when the game was tied, and when the Avs led by a goal or two, Blackwood was a difference maker.
It’s his first playoff start after appearing in 252 regular-season games.
“I was waiting to play in the playoffs for a long time, and it was great to finally get my first one,” Blackwood said. “The way I approached the game today was the same, obviously a little bit more intensity, you could feel it around the rink. But you have to go do the same job.”
The Avs got timely goals, getting the opening goal from Artturi Lehkonen before MacKinnon added to the lead with a power-play tally. After Dallas got one puck past Blackwood, Devon Toews, Charlie Coyle, and MacKinnon put the finishing touches on the win.
“I don’t want to change things about my game,” Blackwood said. “I know what I have to do to have that success. So try to just approach it like a big game and go do the best I can.”
The Avalanche came storming out of the gate looking like the more rested squad. They led 7-1 in shots before the first commercial break but couldn’t get one past goalie Jake Oettinger. In fact, despite that advantage, they still seemed like they were playing rusty and not taking full advantage of their opportunities. Cale Makar had a handful of good looks that missed the net entirely.
And then there were the power plays. Speaking of Makar, he drew two penalties in 36 seconds to give Colorado a lengthy two-man advantage. Not only did the Avs not score on either one, but they didn’t really get any great looks. They passed up a couple of good shots and were trying to unnecessarily force passes to the inside man.
After killing the penalties, Dallas answered back with some chances of their own. Blackwood hadn’t been tested to that point, but was up to the task when he finally was. Late in the first, the shots were suddenly 8-8 with the Stars also failing to score on a power play.
Through 20 minutes, Colorado led 11-8 in shots, and neither team got anything past the goalies.
Then came the second.
Blackwood made his best saves in the middle frame. None were better than the three consecutive stops he had just before the Avs opened the scoring — the last of which came against Wyatt Johnston. The Avs took the puck the other way, and Oettinger saved a Lehkonen shot. The rebound bounced back out to Lehkonen just as he was dropped by Mavrik Bourque, and the Avs’ forward inadvertently flung the puck into the back of the net using his skate.
It was reviewed for a distinct kicking motion but was quickly deemed a good goal.
Almost six minutes after that, Stars center Roope Hintz got nabbed with a double-minor for high-sticking MacKinnon. The official didn’t initially make the call, but after observing a bloodied MacKinnon behind the Avs’ goal, the play was blown dead, and a review confirmed the penalty.
Colorado scored 58 seconds later. It was MacKinnon, firing a shot that deflected in off the glove of defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin.
It was a big goal from the top unit after letting the early 5-on-3 go to waste.
“It’s good to get those opportunities. Yeah, you want to finish, but they stayed at it. They kept a cool head, and they capitalized later on,” Coyle said of the power play. “That’s huge. Just stay with it. Don’t let frustrations creep in and just take care of business.”
Everything about that debut was exactly what the Avs needed from Blackwood. It wasn’t just his first career playoff game, but it came after a recent stretch where he wasn’t playing at his best. Head coach Jared Bednar commented several times in recent weeks about how leaky his top goalie had been.
But Blackwood was up to the task. If anything, it further ensured that Colorado has little reason to stress about its goaltending. He won on the road, against a high-seeded Stars team that had a lot to prove, and did it with relative ease.
The only tally that beat him in Game 1 was a redirect on a power play while he didn’t have his goalie stick. Blackwood faced 18 high-danger opportunities — nearly double the 10 that the Avs put on Oettinger at the other end. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Stars’ expected goals rate was 4.01.
Excellent start for Colorado’s long-term guy.
There’s nothing more on brand for the Avs than playing a solid game, winning 5-1, but losing a guy to injury in the process. Colton played a team-low 7:04 and had only one shift in the third period.
Bednar said after the game that it was a lower-body injury, and we’ll get further updates about his status on Sunday.
This is why you have depth. If Colton can’t go, it becomes an obvious hole in the lineup that can be filled by Gabriel Landeskog. But even without Landeskog as an option, the Avs prepared for injuries enough that both Miles Wood and Jimmy Vesey are solid options, too.
Both of those guys played well down the stretch, especially Wood.
We’ll see what happens with Colton between the end of this game and Monday’s Game 2.
Good & Bad: Shorthanded Avalanche Close Season With 4-2 Comeback Win in Anaheim
Yeah, I noticed a couple minutes into the 3rd that LOC was double shifting on the 3rd and 4th lines, and did the math to figure out it was Colton that was missing. Very unfortunate, because I thought the Kivi – Coyle – Colton line was one of the best on the ice in the first two periods. Hope Ross is alright, but as you said: nice to have some high-quality depth forwards to step in when injuries pop up. My guess, like yours, would be if Colton can’t go in game two, we’ll see Wood with Kivi and Coyle.… Read more »
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