Good & Bad: Avalanche Overcome Late Stars Push With OT Winner From Makar

DENVER — In the most highly anticipated regular-season game so far this season, the Avalanche dominated their division rival Dallas Stars for almost 55 minutes. It seemed like a regulation win was inevitable against the team they’re chasing in the standings.

But in the matter of 20 seconds, the NHL’s third-best team reminded Colorado that no game is truly over. Dallas scored twice to force overtime before the Avalanche got the win on the back of an individual effort from Cale Makar.

Colorado won 4-3 at Ball Arena on Sunday, pulling within two points of the Stars for second in the Central Division, although Dallas has two games in hand. It’s no question these two juggernauts are on a collision course for a first-round matchup.

It’s just a matter of trying to determine who will start at home.

“You’re hoping that when you’re playing games like that, you’re sort of figuring out some things about the Dallas Stars that you got to be aware of,” head coach Jared Bednar said. “The whole team’s dialed in on it, and it’s going to come down to playing your best hockey for that two-week stretch if we play them in the playoffs.”

Mixed into the anticipation was the return of Mikko Rantanen, who had the secondary assist on the Stars’ lone goal in the first. Rantanen was honored with a video tribute at the first commercial break and was trying to keep himself together at the conclusion of it. The emotions were high for him, as they were for both teams on the ice.

Rantanen didn’t get his first shot on goal until the third period when Scott Wedgewood made two big saves on his former teammate.

“They played better than us, for sure, especially the second period,” Rantanen said. “They were all over us.”

Ever since the Rantanen trade, the Avs have not lost at Ball Arena. There are other factors in play, including a deeper lineup and the return of everyone who was injured, most notably Valeri Nichushkin. Colorado is 9-0-0 at Ball Arena since Jan. 31 and 8-0-1 in its last nine games overall.

“There’s a mental toughness to this group,” Bednar said. “There’s a confidence in this group right now that we can not only go and create enough offense to win games, but we could also check the right way.”

Martin Necas, Nichushkin, and Jonathan Drouin scored for the Avalanche in regulation before Makar’s OT tally sealed the second point in the standings. Makar also had two assists, finishing with three points to lead the way offensively.

For Necas, the goal came almost 10 minutes after Dallas got the scoring started. He was the main piece acquired in the Rantanen trade with Carolina and was celebrated as such after his name was announced as the goal scorer.

It was a sloppy period between the Stars’ goal from Jason Robertson and Necas’ tally. But from that point on, the ice tilted in the Avs’ favor. They dominated the rest of the period and had a 13-4 shot advantage at the break. They continued to control play in the second, scoring two more times to build a 3-1 lead. First, Nichushkin fired it past goalie Jake Oettinger to make it 2-1 before Drouin added a one-timer off a set-up from Sam Malinski more than 10 minutes later.

The Avs took just one penalty early in the second and killed it with ease. Their power play was 1-for-5 but had a ton of good looks, especially on their third-period opportunity that came up short. That was perhaps the PK for Dallas that kept them in the game.

Wedgewood got the nod for the third time in four games, winning all three. He’s also 2-0-0 against the Stars this season — the team he played for the past two seasons. Wedgewood has played a lot of hockey as of late and will probably get one of the two back-to-back games coming up next week.

The team defense has been strong, but the goalie has been relied on, too.

“Even if we’re not in complete control at the other end, and we’re not creating enough, we can lock it down now, and we’ve been doing that,” Bednar said. “And we’ve been getting some good goaltending.”

The Stars got late tallies from Mavrik Bourque and Matt Duchene just 20 seconds apart to force OT. It’s a crucial point in the standings for Dallas, but it wasn’t enough to secure a win.

Good: Martin Necas Has a Strong Game

With all the chatter about the Rantanen trade and what the Avs got back in return, it was nice to see Necas have another strong game for the Avs. Especially in his first game on this side of a battle against Rantanen.

Necas said after the game that he doesn’t know Rantanen, but he’s heard good things. He had a game-high eight shots on goal and was flying out there at even strength and on the power play.

I was especially surprised to see some of those one-timers he had on goal on the power play. Those were absolute lasers that Oettinger was stopping. Didn’t quite know Necas had that kind of wind up in him.

Bad: Letting Dallas Back In It

There was a question asked post-game from Denver Post’s Corey Masisak that I thought was the best of the bunch.

He asked Bednar if it’s better that the Avs dominated play for 55 minutes against a good team or if it’s worrying that despite that, the Stars were able to get back into it at a snap of a finger.

Bednar’s response was great as always and some of it is used in the game story above. He said it’s a good opportunity to learn some things about how the Stars play before an inevitable playoff series.

To me, it’s a bummer that they let the Stars back in it. Not only does it mean Dallas is up two points (with two games in hand), but it also eliminated a regulation win for Colorado, which is the first tiebreaker.

The Stars and Avs both have 35 regulation wins and 40 regulation and overtime wins. The next tiebreaker would be head-to-head, which Colorado has the advantage in. In order for these tiebreakers to matter, the Avs gotta make up those two points and scoreboard watch a little bit for those two games the Stars have in hand.