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Avalanche, Francouz shut out the Stars 4-0 in second round-robin game

  
Avalanche, Francouz shut out the Stars 4-0 in second round-robin game
Photo courtesy of NHL.com

While the Avs’ buzzer-beater win over the St. Louis Blues on Sunday was just a round-robin game, fans couldn’t wait to cheer on their team again.  In tonight’s bubble game, the Avs battled the Dallas Stars, a team that had their number during the regular season.  Led by Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, the Stars were another team that the Avs had to beat if they want to get closer to the Stanley Cup.  The Golden Knights and Avs both won their first round-robin games and have two points each, but every point counts with two games remaining.  If Colorado wants that top seed, they needed to make a statement against Dallas, followed by an even bigger one against Vegas on Saturday.  But, first things first, here’s how tonight’s game went down.

First period

The first period started off with a good pace, but things tilted in the Avs’ favor when Stars defenseman Esa Lindell went off for interference just three minutes into the game.  Colorado didn’t waste any time on the powerplay when Cale Makar scored on a one-timer from the point that got by Stars’ goaltender Anton Khudobin, who was starting in place of Ben Bishop, currently unfit to play.  The Stars continued to give up several odd-man rushes throughout the period, but had a good chance of their own when Avs goaltender Pavel Francouz had to cover up a puck deep in his net that was reviewed as a no-goal.

The Avs returned to the powerplay when Mikko Rantanen drove the net on another rush and was tripped by Seguin.  Dallas killed the minor penalty, but the Avalanche scored just a couple seconds later when Joonas Donskoi cleaned up a shot by Sam Girard, putting Colorado up 2-0.  Donskoi got good net-front position on Stars’ defenseman Miro Heiskanen and was able to easily put back the rebound.  The whole play started with a clean faceoff win from J.T. Compher in what seemed like a set play in the offensive zone.  The period ended with a minor penalty to Girard that was killed off, but the damage was done.  The Avs went into the tunnel up two goals and had 14 shots on goal.

Second Period

One minute into the second period, the Avs drew their third penalty of the night when Valeri Nichushkin was tripped by Roope Hintz.  The Stars killed it off, but the Avalanche continued to keep up the intensity.  Francouz was brilliant, making all eight saves in the middle frame while the Stars were making it difficult for him with a lot of traffic in front of the net.  The Avs seem to be on a mission this year as they finished every check in a game that technically doesn’t count.

The Stars caught up to the Avs in shots towards the middle of the period, but Francouz kept them off the board.  After a sloppy play through the neutral zone where everyone seemed to lose track of the puck, Nathan MacKinnon ended up with it on his stick and took a hard wrist shot in the slot.  The puck found Vladislav Namestnikov, who scored, putting the Avs up 3-0.  The period ended with Rantanen drawing another tripping penalty, this time on Stars forward Mattias Janmark.

 

Third Period

To start the period, Avs forward Andre Burakovsky made the Stars pay when he ripped a shot bar-down, making it 4-0.  The Avs were then 2/4 on the powerplay and, moments later, MacKinnon was tripped up by Alexander Radulov, sending Colorado to their fifth powerplay of the night. Thankfully for the Stars, Colorado was unsuccessful.  You could tell the 4-0 score let the wind out of the Stars’ sails, as they were sloppy with the puck and turned it over several times in their own zone.

Halfway through the period, the Avs took their second penalty when captain Gabriel Landeskog went off for cross-checking.  Colorado looked good again on the penalty kill, breaking up passes and sending the puck all the way down for the Stars to collect.  Dallas forward Corey Perry was sprung loose on a breakaway, but was denied by Francouz, who remained brilliant.  Frankie ended the game making all 27 saves against Dallas.

What’s next?

The Avs play their third and final round-robin game on Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights, who came back in the third period to beat the Stars 5-3 on Monday.  Vegas will play their second round-robin game against the Blues on Thursday and could be competing with the Avalanche for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.  Until then, it looks like the Avs could be in the driver’s seat entering the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

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