The Avalanche entered the third period leading 2-1 and ended it with a 4-4 tie.
The Dallas Stars will eliminate the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night at Ball Arena. According to the NHL 25 simulation conducted Tuesday night which had Dallas winning 5-4 in overtime.
The Stars scored three goals in the third period to force overtime and it was enough to send them to the second round of the playoffs.
Sam Girard, Artturi Lehkonen, Joel Kiviranta, and Jack Drury scored for Colorado.
Mikko Rantanen had a goal and two assists for Dallas. Mikael Granlund had three assists, and the Stars also saw goals from Matt Duchene, Esa Lindell, Wyatt Johnston, and Mason Marchment, who scored the game-winner.
Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 29 of 34 shots and Jake Oettinger stopped 31 of 35 shots.
First Period
To start, 3:51 into the game, Girard accepted a cross-ice feed from Landeskog and he buried it to give Colorado a 1-0 lead with elimination on the back of everyone’s minds.
About four minutes later, the Avalanche went on the power play after Johnston cross-checked Charlie Coyle in the back near center ice.
The power play was stifled after several missed passes and turnovers. After failing to convert on the man-advantage, Brock Nelson was penalized for holding.
Once both teams returned to full strength, Colorado took a 2-0 lead when Drury beat Oettinger blocker side after Parker Kelly found him in the slot.
However, on the next play, Lehkonen was boxed for holding Cody Ceci against the boards, a play that had Jared Bednar holding his head in confusion. Dallas subsequently got one back when Johnston deflected a shot from Mikael Granlund that got by a sprawled out Blackwood to make it a one-goal deficit with just over three minutes to go in the period.
Colorado got another penalty when Jonathan Drouin was sent to the glass chamber for holding Esa Lindell. Another unfortunate infraction occurred after that when Marty Necas tripped up a guy while attempting to deke by him by the blue line. As a result, Dallas went on a 5-on-3 power play.
Second Period
Colorado managed to kill off the penalty and some of their depth players had juicy opportunities. Erik Johnson rang one off the post, and Drury just missed out on another goal as he was tangled in front of the net as a loose puck got away from Oettinger.
The Avalanche failed to convert on another power play and the second period ended with the boys holding a 2-1 lead.
Third Period
Lehkonen scored to make it a 3-1 game 26 seconds into the period when Necas fed him a perfect cross-crease pass for the tap-in. Unfortunately, Colorado found themselves down a man once again when Nathan MacKinnon slashed his good pal Rantanen. Dallas added another power play goal when Duchene knocked a rebound by Blackwood.
Kiviranta made it a 4-2 game when he beat Oettinger with a wrister blocker side with just over 13 minutes to go in the third.
Marchment and Rantanen teamed up for the same real-life sequence we saw in Game 5, where Marchment fed Rantanen in the slot to beat Blackwood’s blocker side. This made it a 4-3 game as they neared the conclusion.
Landeskog was called for holding Johnston with 12.9 seconds remaining in the game. The subsequent faceoff would take place in the Colorado defensive zone and Esa Lindell snapped a wrister by Blackwood off the faceoff to tie the game with 11 seconds remaining.
Overtime
With about nine minutes left in the first overtime frame, Drury was penalized for holding. And on the next play, Marchment scored to beat Blackwood and sent the Dallas Stars to the semifinals, and handed Colorado another bitter pill to swallow as they lost for the second consecutive year.
Takeaways
Blown third period leads? Sounds about right. But hey, the sim has been wrong three games in a row. Perhaps this means we will see a Game 7.