Dallas Stars center Roope Hintz and centre Logan Stankoven celebrate after Hintz scores a goal against the Colorado Avalanche during the second period in Game 2 at American Airlines Center. The Stars won 5-3 on May 9. 2024.Jerome Miron/Reuters
Dallas defenceman Miro Heiskanen scored two power-play goals, Roope Hintz had a goal and three assists and the Stars beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-3 in Game 2 on Thursday night to even the second-round Western Conference series.
Tyler Seguin got his first goal this post-season on a short-hander at the end of a 3-on-1 breakaway for the Stars that put them up 4-0 late in the second period. Esa Lindell added an empty-netter with 20 seconds left, with Hintz getting his final assist.
Jake Oettinger had 28 saves against a Colorado team that led the NHL in scoring during the regular season and had averaged an NHL-high 5.33 goals in its first six games this post-season.
Joel Kiviranta, Andrew Cogliano and Brandon Duhaime scored in the third period for the Avalanche, who failed to score on a power play in the final three minutes that turned briefly into a 6-on-4 after goalie Alexander Georgiev skated to the bench.
Game 3 is Saturday night in Denver.
Hintz, whose only previous point this post-season had been an empty-net goal in Game 4 of the opening series against Vegas, put Dallas up 2-0 less than two minutes into the second period. That came after the Avalanche had failed to score on a power play that carried over from the end of the first period, when Oettinger had a couple of impressive saves in the closing seconds.
It also was soon after Miles Wood, who scored in overtime for Colorado in Game 1, had a shot blocked by Oettinger and the Stars took the puck the other way. Hintz was to the left of Alexander Georgiev when he got a cross-ice pass from Nils Lundkvist.
Georgiev stopped 26 shots.
Dallas led 3-0 with four minutes left in the second period when captain Jamie Benn and Hintz had assists as Heiskanen scored on a shot that went off the stick of former Stars centre Cogliano.
Benn had been called for a major penalty a few minutes before that for a big hit that levelled defenceman Devon Toews behind the Colorado net. But officials reviewed the play and didn’t call any penalty after replay showed a shoulder-to-shoulder hit. Toews left the game briefly, but returned before the end of the second period.
Hintz was serving a holding penalty when Seguin got his first short-hander in his 123rd playoff game to make it 4-0.
Colorado had trailed 3-0 in the first period of Game 1 two nights earlier before coming back to win 4-3 in overtime, and extend its post-season winning streak to five games. That was the third time this season the Avs had come back from a multigoal deficit to win in Dallas.
They came up short this time in a game when hurt by some self-induced penalties and going 0 for 3 on power plays. Of their six penalties, two were for delay of game wo for delay of game after knocking pucks into the stands, and two more for having too many men on the ice.
League MVP finalist Nathan MacKinnon had the first delay of game penalty against Colorado, knocking the puck out of his own zone. Dallas capitalized, going up 1-0 after a circle-to-circle pass from Hintz to Heiskanen with 5:14 left in the first period.
The Avalanche were about midway through their first power play in the closing seconds of the first period when Oettinger made two saves in quick succession, knocking away Artturi Lehkonen’s shot and then making a glove save with Valeri Nichushkin took a backhanded swat at that rebound. Nichushkin was held without a goal for the first time this post-season.
Lehkonen had also been denied by on a shot with about three minutes to go, right after he made a nifty pass to Zach Parise, only to have Oettinger go into a split and reject that shot with his extended left skate.