*Sorry for the lack of photos! Hoping to get permission eventually.*
The Stars took Game 3 with a 4-1 victory on Saturday, May 11th at the Ball Arena to lead 2-1 in the series. Mikko Rantanen scored the lone goal for the Avalanche, and both Tyler Seguin and Logan Stankoven scored two each to help Dallas for a series lead. The Avalanche will host the Stars again on Monday, May 13th for Game 4 to tie the series or Dallas to take a 3-1 lead.
Stars lineup against the Avalanche:
Robertson - Hintz - Stankoven
Marchment - Seguin - Duchene
Benn - Johnston - Pavelski
Dadonov - Steel - Smith
Harley - Heiskanen
Lindell - Tanev
Suter - Lundkvist
Oettinger
Wedgewood
Avalanche lineup against the Stars:
Lehkonen - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichushkin - Mittelstadt - Parise
Wood - Colton - Kiviranta
Duhaime - Trenin - Cogliano
Toews - Makar
Girard - Manson
Johnson - Walker
Georgiev
Annunen
Late into the first period with 1:21 remaining, Logan Stankoven opened the scoring to give the Stars a 1-0 lead and notched his first career playoff goal. He scored on a wrist shot past Alexander Georgiev's arm, striking from the left face-off circle.
Mikko Rantanen tied it up to get the Avalanche on the board at 9:36 of the second off the rebound of Nathan MacKinnon's shot in the crease, who deked around Chris Tanev to put his shot off Evgenii Dadonov's leg. With 4:47 left in the middle frame, Tyler Seguin put Dallas back in front when he deflected Dadonov's cross-crease pass from the far side of the net to make it 2-1.
Tyler Seguin struck the empty net late in the third to extend the lead to 3-1 from his own zone, and with only 28 seconds left in regulation, Logan Stankoven sent the puck home for another empty-netter and a 4-1 final.
Tyler Seguin on what led them to success in the third: "It was a challenge that we put on each other. The accountability we had for our past mistakes and how the story has gone this whole year goes against these guys. They're a great third-period team and a great team in general. They're so offensive and they've got some stars; best players in the world, so it takes a full team effort to do what we did, and we're going to have a big challenge next game."
Logan Stankoven on his two playoff goals and shutting down the chance for the Avalanche to make a comeback in this game: "I think it's always nice to contribute. I feel like I've been doing the right things but just couldn't find the back of the net; it's always bumps in the road being a young guy in the league. So, I'm just trying to find my way and earn the coach's trust," - "I think just throughout the regular season, you saw how good of a comeback team they are. So, I think tonight we were super committed to not letting them get a sniff there in the third. They're a really momentum-based team; once they get one, the building gets going and things can turn."
Jared Bednar on why he thinks the team had been unable to get goals when they were needed: "Probably the same reason why we didn't get them earlier on in the game. They're checking hard and they were above everything. Obviously very disciplined in their structure in the third period - They kind of waited for us to force some stuff and make some mistakes to create their scoring chances... My one take would be we got to make it a little bit tougher on Oettinger. We were there at times, tough to track down some of those rebounds, shots were blocked - but we were skating, competing, earning power plays; would have been nice to capitalize on one of those early power plays and take a lead."
Notes:
- Jake Oettinger made 28 saves for Dallas, and Alexander Georgiev made 19 saves for Colorado.
Oettinger (1,001 saves) became the sixth goaltender in Stars/North Stars franchise history with at least 1,000 career saves in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He joins Ed Belfour (1,800), Marty Turco (1,193), Gilles Meloche (1,139), Cesare Maniago (1,026), and Jon Casey (1,016).
- Logan Stankoven joins Wyatt Johnston as the only Stars rookie with a playoff goal dating to the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
- Miro Heiskanen recorded his 42nd career playoff assist to tie Saku Koivu for the eighth-most by a Finnish-born player.
- With his assist on Mikko Rantanen's goal, which had been his 28th with the Avalanche, Devon Toews moved past Rob Blake for the fourth-most by a defenseman in Avalanche/Nordiques history.
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