Stars Handle Shorthanded Avalanche to Take 3-1 Series Lead
Game Four between the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche had significant implications for both sides. The Stars were looking to take back-to-back games on the road, which would give them a commanding 3-1 series lead. Meanwhile, the Avalanche were looking to defend home ice and tie the series back up at two games apiece. Ultimately, Dallas was the better team from start to finish, as they came up with a wire-to-wire victory by a score of 5-1.
The Avalanche were at a disadvantage before this game even started. Just hours before the game, they discovered that their star defenseman, Devon Toews, would be out with an illness. However, the bad news did not stop there. It was announced that forward Valeri Nichushkin was being suspended for six months due to a failed drug test. Both of these pills are hard to swallow for any team in the middle of a playoff series, but for both to happen just hours before a crucial game is challenging for the team to rally back from, and that sluggishness from Colorado showed early on. The Stars came out in the first period and outshot the Avalanche 16-2 in the opening frame, and thankfully for Colorado, the Stars only had a short-handed goal by Wyatt Johnston to show for it. Avalanche goaltender Alexander Georgiev did a fantastic job to keep his team in the game through the first twenty minutes, but the Stars would break through in the second period.
Just over five minutes into the second frame, Wyatt Johnston struck again, this time on the power play off a beautiful passing play from Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson, for his seventh goal of the playoffs. Heiskanen would tally a goal of his own about six minutes later to stretch the Stars’ lead to 3-0 about halfway through the game. With just about nothing going Colorado’s way, they showed a little sign of life as Casey Mittelstadt scored a minute after Heiskanen’s goal to cut the lead back to a two-goal deficit. That would remain the deficit at the end of the period, which gave the Avalanche crowd something to cheer about and a little momentum heading into the final period of play.
However, the Avalanche could not capitalize off any of that momentum they may have gained at the end of the second period, despite an effort from the home crowd to energize them. The Stars controlled much of the puck possession in the first half of the period before Evgenii Dadonov buried a rebound off a shot from Mason Marchment to put the game out of reach for good. Wyatt Johnston unselfishly passed up a chance at a playoff hat trick as he passed to his teammate Sam Steel, who put away the empty net goal to make it a 5-1 final score. It will be a quick turnaround for the Avalanche, who were understandably sluggish in game four. Still, they will need to figure it out quickly, with game five now being an elimination game in Dallas on Wednesday night. As for the Stars, they are just one win away from the opportunity to avenge last year’s Western Conference Finals defeat at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Vegas Golden Knights.
