Final OT
Dallas Stars 7 – Colorado Avalanche 6
Wow. Holy Smokes. Unbelievable. Exclamations are pretty much all you can say after watching a game like the one that the Stars and Avalanche had last night. Dallas overcame three different deficits, there were 13 combined goals, five of them from power-plays, Matt Duchene put on a clinic and had a hat trick.
Coming into this game, coach Glen Gulutzan wanted to avoid a run-and-gun game that the Avalanche like to play. Those wishes were dashed in the first few minutes as it became clear that the Avs were going to dictate the pace of the game. Dallas looked really rusty in the 1st period. They had no energy and just seemed a step behind the Avs skaters. Colorado scored twice in the 1st period, getting contributions from Jay McClement and Duchene’s first tally of the night. The Stars took three penalties in the first and it came back to bite them.
Gulutzan must have said some pretty inspirational stuff during the intermission because the Stars came out in the 2nd period like wildmen. They had some help as the Avs started to lose control and take penalties left and right. The Avs took four penalties in the 2nd and Dallas scored three PP goals. Loui Eriksson, Sheldon Souray and Alex Goligoski had PP goals and Vernon Fiddler had one on even strength.
Dallas was up 4-2 with about 2 minutes left in the period when the Avs made their comeback. Matt Duchene scored off a missed clear by Jamie Benn. Benn was on the middle of the ice and tried to fire it off to his left at the boards. The puck went right to Duchene, who fired it into the net before Kari Lehtonen could get back into position. 40 seconds later, Paul Stastny put one in from behind the goaline. The puck hit Kari in the back of the legs and fell into the net. In a span of six minutes, there were five goals and the score was tied 4-4.
The 3rd period started poorly for Dallas. Daniel Winnik put in a goal after two minutes to put the Avs up 5-4. Lehtonen lost control of a shot, sending the rebound rolling up the middle of the ice right to Winnik. Poor defensive coverage led him to skate through wide open to find the puck and he scored. The Stars were able to get back into the game five minutes later. Erik Nystrom scored a goal just as a Stars PP was ending. The puck was shot off the post by Radek Dvorak and Nystrom pounced on the loose puck. It counted as an even strength goal, but the Avs player in the sin bin hadn’t even taken a step out of the box yet.
The Avs once again took the lead two minutes later as Duchene hit the turbo button and put on some sick moves that left Stephane Robidas wobbling in his skates. Duchene skated pretty much the length of the ice and skated through three different Stars defenders (most notably Robidas) before firing one by Lehtonen. From then on, it looked like Dallas would not be able to come back, but they did it once again. Stephane Robidas tipped in a Michael Ryder shot with five minutes left in the game and it was sent into overtime.
In the OT, Lehtonen made some amazing saves, keeping the extra point alive for Dallas. Eriksson was able to score the game-winning goal with a minute left in OT. Eriksson skated the puck behind and around the Avs net. The Avs goalie, Varlamov, followed him a bit and then was run into by his own guy (it looked like Hejduk), leaving the net wide open. Loui fired the puck towards the net, where it bounced off the sprawled bodies of an Avs defender and Jamie Benn and into the net.
An amazing game ended perfectly for Dallas. They moved to 9-3-0 (18 pts) on the year and the Avs drop to 7-5-1 (15 pts). The Stars now head on a four game road trip with their next game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.
Notes and Observations:
- As you would expect in a game like this, the points were flowing for the Stars players. Benn had three assists, Eriksson had two goals and assist, Robidas had a goal and two assists, Fiddler, Souray and Goligoski had a goal and an assist each and Michael Ryder had two assists.
- Radek Dvorak took his first penalty of the season in this game, a high-sticking call in the 1st period.
- This game was also the first time all season that Dallas allowed more than one goal on the PK during a game and also the first time they scored more than one PP goal. In fact, Dallas nearly doubled their PP goals for the season just from this game.
Game Stats and Scoring Summary
| Dallas | Colorado | |
| Score | 7 | 6 |
| Shots | 29 | 40 |
| Penalty Minutes | 12 | 14 |
| Power Plays | 3 of 6 | 2 of 5 |
| Blocked Shots | 16 | 13 |
| Hits | 30 | 20 |
| Faceoff Wins | 37 | 35 |
1st Period:
- 5:36 Jay McClement (1) Dallas 0 – Colorado 1
Assist: Kyle Quincey
- 12:17 Matt Duchene (3) (Power Play) Dallas 0 – Colorado 2
Assists: Chuck Kobasew, Ryan O’Reilly
2nd Period:
- 5:39 Loui Eriksson (7) (Power Play) Dallas 1 – Colorado 2
Assists: Jamie Benn, Alex Goligoski
- 12:44 Sheldon Souray (4) (Power Play) Dallas 2 – Colorado 2
Assists: Jamie Benn, Adam Burish
- 15:21 Vernon Fiddler (3) Dallas 3 – Colorado 2
Assists: Michael Ryder, Loui Eriksson
- 17:02 Alex Goligoski (2) (Power Play) Dallas 4 – Colorado 2
Assists: Stephane Robidas, Mike Ribeiro
- 17:45 Matt Duchene (4) Dallas 4 – Colorado 3
Unassisted
- 18:28 Paul Stastny (3) Dallas 4 – Colorado 4
Assists: Matt Duchene, Ryan Wilson
3rd Period:
- 1:57 Daniel Winnik (3) Dallas 4 – Colorado 5
Assists: Shane O’Brien, Ryan Wilson
- 6:01 Eric Nystrom (2) Dallas 5 – Colorado 5
Assists: Radek Dvorak, Vernon Fiddler
- 8:32 Matt Duchene (5) (Power Play) Dallas 5 – Colorado 6
Assists: Erik Johnson, Ryan Wilson
- 15:50 Stephane Robidas (1) Dallas 6 – Colorado 6
Assists: Michael Ryder, Sheldon Souray
Overtime:
- 3:55 Loui Eriksson (8) Dallas 7 – Colorado 6
Assists: Stephane Robidas, Jamie Benn
