DALLAS — For the third time this season, the Colorado Avalanche were behind by multiple goals at American Airlines Center against one of the best teams in the NHL.
For the third time this season, the Avs won anyway. Miles Wood scored the biggest goal of his life Tuesday night to help Colorado complete another dramatic comeback against the Dallas Stars in a 4-3 overtime thriller.
The Avalanche now lead this second-round series 1-0. Game 2 is here Thursday night.
“I don’t really play in (regular-season) OT. Three-on-three is not really my thing,” Wood said after scoring the first overtime goal of his career. “Playoff OT … I was just happy to be out there.”
The Stars had dominated the start of the extra session, but Wood outraced Stars defenseman Miro Heiskanen to the puck in the neutral zone, got around the all-world defenseman and deposited a beautiful backhanded shot at 11:03.
“Wood was fresh and slashing through ‘D’, and (Andrew Cogliano) made a nice pass to get it to him,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “When (Wood) gets going like that, he’s hard to stop. He’s fast and he’s powerful and he just took it to the house.”
It was a slow start for Colorado, as Dallas grabbed a 3-0 lead in the opening 20 minutes. It was familiar territory for the Avs. The Stars had the first three goals here Nov. 18 before the visitors scored the next six, including one from Wood where he also scored on a similar play.
Dallas also led 3-1 and 4-2 here Jan. 4, only for Colorado to storm back and win 5-4 in overtime. The Avalanche also led the NHL in comeback victories during the regular season, then trailed in three of the four victories against the Winnipeg Jets in the opening round
“You can’t take a breath with these guys,” Stars captain Jamie Benn said. “They’re not just going to give it to you because you’re up a couple of goals. They did that again tonight.”
The final two periods of regulation looked more like what the Avs accomplished against the Jets in a five-game first-round wipeout.
Valeri Nichushkin put the Avs on the board with the first of two second-period power-play goals. It came on the rebound of a Cale Makar shot, and was Nichushkin’s eighth goal in six playoff games.
Makar got the Avs within one at 9:08 of the middle period with a laser beam of a wrist shot from the top of the offensive zone. Colorado scored six times with the extra man in the first round, and the Avs are now 8 for 18 on the power play in the postseason.
Beyond the two goals, the Avs dominated the period. Dallas had just three shots on net, and Colorado had 14 of the 16 scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.
Nathan MacKinnon evened the score at 3-3 on the first shift of the third period. He pounced on the rebound of a Makar shot just 39 seconds in. It was Makar’s third point of the game, and he’s now tied with Connor McDavid atop the NHL’s postseason leaderboard with 12.
“It’s not exactly an ideal spot when we’re down, playing down from three goals,” Makar said. “I felt like it was a closer game at that point than the score indicated.”
The Stars, despite playing two nights prior to finish off the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights in Game 7 of their opening-round series, grabbed a 3-0 lead in the opening period.
Ryan Suter opened the scoring with a shot from the left point through traffic at 7:26. Wyatt Johnston made it 2-0 with a shot that went off Makar’s stick and deflected into the top-left corner at 10:55. Jason Robertson’s shot during a 5-on-3 went off Jamie Benn’s body and trickled across the line at 16:56.
When the Avs didn’t have a communication breakdown or weren’t putting someone in the penalty box — Colorado had three infractions in the final five minutes of the period — the opening 20 minutes weren’t as bad as the scoreline indicated. The Avs allowed just three scoring chances at 5-on-5.
Georgiev allowed three goals on the first nine shots he faced, but made a couple of huge saves in the third period after the Avalanche rallied to tie the game.
The Avs had a 22-7 advantage in scoring chances at even strength through regulation. Dallas had just seven shots on goal in the final 43:04 of regulation after taking the 3-0 lead.
The Stars were able to flip the flow of the game back in their favor at the start of overtime. Dallas had the first six shots on goal, including two glorious chances that Georgiev had to turn aside.
“It took us a bit. But once we found our legs, we had a great second and third. (Alexandar Georgiev) had some great saves, and (Miles Wood) had a great goal,” MacKinnon said.
“We definitely stayed positive the whole game. It would’ve been easy to fold after that first period, but we felt like we played better than what the score showed. We wanted to see it through and definitely happy to get the comeback.”
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