DALLAS — If anyone turned off the television midway through Game 4 and avoided the events of last night, they’d likely assume the Colorado Avalanche’s season was over.
It certainly looked bleak, given the news prior to the game Monday night and the Avs’ performance as the Dallas Stars dominated in a way that neither side had. The season is not over, and the Avs might have found the spark they needed to still make the improbable possible in this second-round series.
Colorado’s championship core had time to reset, time for Devon Toews to shake an illness, and the Avalanche’s big guns showed out Wednesday night in Game 5 in Dallas.
“Your leaders and your top guys, you hear it all the time, have to be your top guys,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You don’t want to just rely on your top guys all the time, but they’re put out in situations to help you produce and they’re hard on themselves when don’t. I like that personally because they’re holding themselves to a high standard.
“They were fantastic.”
Colorado’s core guys had their fingerprints on every Avalanche goal in a 5-3 victory.
Nathan MacKinnon got the Avs going. Colorado nearly went a fifth straight game in this series without scoring a goal in the first period, but MacKinnon broke the club out of a power-play slump and gave it life by finding Artturi Lehkonen for a one-timer with 0.6 seconds left.
Cale Makar erased a second deficit with another power-play goal in the second, with the help of a Mikko Rantanen screen. Rantanen made multiple key plays to help create the go-ahead goal early in the third period.
His play, more than the other stars, has been scrutinized the most of late. He did not earn an assist on Casey Mittelstadt’s goal, but he’s been a key part of three in three games. Bednar split MacKinnon and Rantanen in Game 5 at even strength, and was happy with the results.
“Mikko, to me, has been getting better as the series has gone on. More competitive. It’s starting to show up,” Bednar said. “I’m starting to see a lot of productive things in Mikko’s game, and I’m sure his offense will come with that.”
Makar and MacKinnon added the final two goals, as the Avalanche offense finally looked freed from the shackles that Dallas’ defensive structure had placed on it for much of the previous three games.
“It’s not a one-man job or a two-man job to create offense,” Bednar said. “I thought we were more connected tonight as a group of five, working at the same time instead of one or two guys working and a couple of guys watching. But yeah, (the top guys) come up and play their best game of the series. And they get rewarded on skill plays that start with hard work from the group. And then their skill is allowed to shine.”
The Avalanche scored three goals in a period for the first time this series. Colorado did not trail at the end of the first intermission for the first time, then followed it up by not trailing at the second intermission for the first time as well.
It’s been a very tight series, but Dallas has scored first and forced Colorado to chase. The Avs were able to track the Stars down in a manner that didn’t necessitate a furious third-period comeback.
They also beat Jake Oettinger with a couple of shots that made him look mortal. Whether or not any or all of this will matter Friday night in Game 6 remains to be seen. Postseason series often have very little momentum from game to game.
Just look at how Colorado performed in Game 5 after looking like a defeated outfit in Game 4. The Avs looked more like themselves Wednesday night, and that gives them hope to keep the pressure on.
“It forced us out of our comfort zone,” MacKinnon said. “It was do or die and we just couldn’t lay an egg again. It was the first full 60 (minute effort) of this series for us. If we can keep doing that, I like our chances.”
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.