DENVER – The league’s best road team shined again Monday night, as the Dallas Stars defeated the Colorado Avalanche 5-1 in Game 4 at Ball Arena.
The youngest player in the squad, Wyatt Johnston, scored two goals to open a lead that Miro Heiskanen, Evgenii Dadonov, and Sam Steel (empty goalkeeper) later extended.
The Stars have now won three games in a row and lead the series 3-1. They can close it on home ice at 7 pm CT on Wednesday.
Here are five thoughts from the Stars’ Game 4 victory:
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Stars can close at home
For the second time in these playoffs, the Stars have won three consecutive victories, two of them on enemy ice.
After falling behind 0-2 in the series against Las Vegas, Dallas won Games 3 and 4 at T-Mobile Arena before earning its first victory at American Airlines Center. After falling behind 0-1 at home to the Avalanche in this round, Dallas tied the series at home and took control on the trip to Denver, winning Games 3 and 4 and outscoring the Avalanche 9-2 in the two outings.
The Stars had the best road-winning percentage in the NHL during the regular season, and that translates into the playoffs. The Stars are 4-1 on the road and 3-3 at home.
The Stars need just one win to advance to the Western Conference finals. After dominating the league’s best home team over the past three days, they have earned the chance to punch their ticket to one of two Canadian destinations in front of a passionate crowd in Dallas.
“It’s a great feeling to finish 3-1 instead of 2-2, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” Heiskanen said. “They will surely make it even stronger in the next match, so we have to be prepared for that.”
Wyatt Johnston’s Early Birthday Celebration
The Stars’ leading scorer this postseason scored his second multi-goal game, giving Dallas a 2-0 lead early in the second period.
Just hours before his 21st birthday, the 20-year-old set a franchise record, scoring his 10th playoff goal, the most of any Stars player before the age of 21. He even surpassed Hall of Famer Mike Modano in that category.
Johnston broke his record by scoring his 11th goal early in the second period.
He took an astonishing eight shots on goal in the match. He also became the second player to score a shorthanded goal on a power play in a playoff game before age 21. The other is Wayne Gretzky.
Just seconds into Colorado’s power play in the first period, Johnston stripped the puck from Norris Trophy finalist Cale Makar deep in the Avalanche zone. He gave it to Steel, who shot Alexandar Georgiev. Johnston cleaned up the rebound to score his first goal short of playoff players.
“You don’t see many guys with less than 21 kills,” Stars forward Jason Robertson said of Johnston. “I’m probably not scoring on the power play either. It’s a tremendous achievement, and it shows how well, how prepared, and how hard he’s come. From here, he will continue to rise.”
Johnston added his second on the power play off a pass from Robertson and connected from a tight angle.
Johnston has seven goals and four assists for 11 points in these playoffs.
“It’s been a very, very crazy couple of years,” Johnston said. “I don’t think if you told me I’d be in (this) position, playing in the NHL Playoffs for the Stars, in 2020 and COVID, I don’t know if I’d believe you. “I mean, it’s been a great couple of years and I’m so grateful.”
A good start leaves Avs playing from behind
In four games, the Avalanche have not led the Stars in regulation.
Their only victory came after coming back from a 0-3 deficit in Game 1 to tie the score and send it to overtime, where they scored the winning goal.
Otherwise, Dallas has held the lead for the rest of the series.
The same thing happened Monday night, when the Stars got off to a good start and took another 1-0 lead late in the first. Dallas has had a lead at the end of every first period in this series.
In the first 20 minutes, the Stars had a 16-2 advantage in shots. Each team had a power play and neither scored with the man advantage, but Johnston converted on a shorthanded situation to give his team a 1-0 halftime lead.
Colorado found a way to come back from the Stars’ early leads in the first two games of the series, but Dallas managed to increase this to four goals and keep the Avalanche at bay until time ran out.
“We have a group that doesn’t want to fool each other,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said. “I mean, Wyatt Johnston has a chance for an empty-net hat trick and he passes the ball to Sam Steel, so Sam Steel can score a goal. When that kind of altruistic stuff happens in your group, it’s contagious. “I’m proud of our approach.”
Special teams tell a series story.
The team that won the special teams battle won each of the first four matchups. Monday was just another example.
The Stars have now limited Colorado to 0 for 8 on the power play in the last three games and scored two shorthanded goals in that span. Tyler Seguin scored one in Game 2 and Johnston opened the scoring with another on Monday.
Dallas has as many shorthanded goals in this series as the Avalanche has power-play goals.
Dallas also took advantage of the power play early in the second period to take a 2-0 lead.
The Stars also didn’t take many penalties in Monday’s game, which helped their chances on special teams. After a call by Logan Stankoven gave Colorado a power play late in the first, the Avalanche had just one more man advantage late in the third period but were unable to score.
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Stars defense suffocates Avs at home
Colorado was not only the league’s highest-scoring team in the first round of the NHL playoffs (averaging 5.60 goals per game), but they were also the NHL’s best home team during the regular season
Few expected the Avalanche to lose a home game in Games 3 and 4, much less two.
The Stars earned two wins thanks to stellar defensive play. After holding the Avalanche to just one goal on Saturday, they only gave up one during Game 4 on Monday.
The Stars also held Colorado to two shots on goal in the first period of Monday’s game. That was Colorado’s fewest shots on goal in a home period all season.
Through the first six games the two teams played this season (regular season and playoffs), the Avalanche averaged 4.5 goals per game. Those numbers have changed drastically, allowing the Stars to take a comfortable lead in the series.
“We’re just trying to play Stars hockey,” Stars forward Joe Pavelski said. “Sometimes you’re aware of certain guys that are out there, and it’s been a great effort. The D’s have stepped up and done a great job, the forwards, when you’re there, you know who’s there and doing the job. “We’ve had a lot of big blocks and Jake (Oettinger) has been great.”
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