Not one. Not two. Not three. However six. That is what number of consecutive Recreation 1s the Dallas Stars have misplaced after falling to the visiting Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in additional time on Tuesday evening within the Western Convention semifinals.
The Stars jumped out to a 3-0 lead within the first interval on targets by Ryan Suter, Wyatt Johnston and Jamie Benn, solely to go scoreless the remainder of the best way, permitting the Avalanche 4 straight targets, together with a near-winner from Miles Wooden. 9 minutes into additional time.
“We have been in command of the sport and let him get away. However we noticed that within the common season towards them,” Stars ahead Matt Duchene instructed reporters. “We had two video games like that so we got here again right here and cut up the house.
The Avalanche began their comeback by capitalizing on their energy play probabilities. Valeri Nichushkin made it 3-1 simply over 5 minutes into the second interval and Cale Makar made it 3-2 nearly 4 minutes later.
Avalanche star middle Nathan MacKinnon, who was named certainly one of three finalists for the Hart Trophy on Tuesday, scored the tying objective lower than a minute into the third interval.
“They’re an amazing energy ahead,” Benn mentioned. “They’ve plenty of talent. We will have to observe some video and study from it and transfer on.”
There have been moments in additional time when the Avalanche struggled to discover a clear shot earlier than Wooden discovered area on a breakaway and beat Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger for the game-winning objective.
“We did not know we may come again, however we needed to at the least attempt,” MacKinnon mentioned after the sport.
Studying find out how to make the required changes after dropping Recreation 1 proved to be a well-recognized theme for the Stars.
The final time they received the primary recreation of a playoff collection was in 2020 once they began Recreation 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals towards the Tampa Bay Lightning in a collection that Dallas would lose in six video games.
The Stars opened the 2022 playoffs with a Recreation 1 loss to the Calgary Flames and have been eradicated in seven video games. Final season, the Stars opened the playoffs with a first-round double-overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild earlier than profitable the collection in six video games. Dallas misplaced Recreation 1 of the second spherical in additional time to the Seattle Kraken earlier than profitable that collection in seven video games en path to the Western Convention Finals, the place the Stars misplaced one other Recreation 1 that went to additional time to the Vegas Golden Knights earlier than clinching the collection. in six video games.
Quick-forward to this 12 months’s playoffs: The Stars misplaced the primary two video games of their opening-round collection with the Golden Knights earlier than knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champions within the first spherical. And now Dallas pushed that streak to 6 straight losses in Recreation 1 with Tuesday’s loss to the Avalanche.
“I believe you study one another because the collection goes on, and what we find out about this group occurred tonight,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer mentioned. “I believe we had the lead. … They’re quick-strike groups. You may’t make errors in these conditions. It is onerous to study in Recreation 1, however I am glad you do not study that within the recreation.” 6 or 7 within the knockout recreation.”
