stunning last-second trade to re-acquire Nazem Kadri<\/a> just before the deadline, the Dallas Stars scored four times in the first 22 minutes before the visitors came all the way back for a wild 5-4 shootout win Friday night at American Airlines Center.<\/p>\nThe win puts the Avs seven points clear of the Stars at the top of the NHL standings, while Colorado also has a game in hand. It also stopped Dallas\u2019 10-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we played pretty well. Great comeback win,\u201d Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. \u201cThe second half of that game, I thought we played really, really well. The shots, the chances were in our favor, so a solid win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Valeri Nichushkin scored a 6-on-5 goal with 13.2 seconds to send this game to overtime. It was his 13th goal of the season, and just his second since scoring a hat trick on New Year\u2019s Eve.<\/p>\n
Nichuhskin and Martin Necas also both scored pretty shootout goals to earn the second point.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s huge,\u201d MacKinnon said of Nichushkin\u2019s goal. \u201cI don\u2019t know how long it was, but it was a little bit. Huge for our team. He played awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Necas had a four-point night for the Avs, while MacKinnon had a goal and two assists.<\/p>\n
The Avs did not have a good first period at 5-on-5, but the power play roared to life to keep them in it. Cale Makar scored on a wrister from the right circle at 3:33 of the first. It was the third great look of the man advantage, and Makar\u2019s 19th goal of the season. MacKinnon picked up his 60th assist on the play.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon scored in the final seconds of the period on a one-timer from Necas to give Colorado two power-play goals in the same game for the first time since Jan. 8 against Ottawa and only the sixth time all season.<\/p>\n
In between the extra-man tallies, the Stars racked up a trio of goals. Miro Heiskanen tied the score with a power-play goal at 7:11 of the first. His shot from the top of the zone hit Avs defenseman Devon Toews just in front of Mackenzie Blackwood.<\/p>\n
Wyatt Johnston\u2019s first shot went wide left from the right circle, but he went into that corner, came back into the left circle and beat Blackwood with another try at 10:39 to put the Stars in front.<\/p>\n
Blackwood gifted a goal to Justin Hryckowian and Dallas took a 3-1 lead. The goalie went behind the net to play the puck, but put it off Toews. When he tried to recover in front of the net, Blackwood got turned around and Hryckowian had a wide-open net to shoot at from the right circle.<\/p>\n
Hryckowian created the fourth Dallas goal and ended Blackwood\u2019s evening less than two minutes into the second period. He engaged with Josh Manson behind the Colorado net, created a turnover and fed Stars captain Jamie Benn in front for a goal from the edge of the crease at 1:52.<\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood replaced Blackwood after he allowed four goals on 11 shots. Wedgwood was spectacular at times, stopping all 10 shots he faced plus Jason Robertson and Matt Duchene.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was one of his best games, or partial games, that I\u2019ve ever seen him play,\u201d Avs coach Jared Bednar said. \u201cWe gave up some glorious chances at the start when he went in there. We needed some saves to keep that game within reach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed a big performance from him going in there in order to win that hockey game and he was exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Necas helped set up the first two Colorado goals, then he scored the third to bring the visitors back within one. MacKinnon slipped him the puck in the right circle, and Necas wired a wrist shot into the top-right corner for his 28th goal of the year.<\/p>\n
He now has six goals and 14 points in six games since the Olympic break, which came after he led Czechia with three goals and eight points in Milan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think (the Olympics) was a little bit of a coming out part for him,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cI think he realized that, and he\u2019s come back and played with a ton of confidence. What I like about his game is he\u2019s always been a dynamic offensive player, he\u2019s putting more of an onus on his checking.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s turning into not just a dynamic offensive player, but a trusted defensive player as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacKinnon continues to lead the NHL with 42 goals. He\u2019s up to 103 points, which trails only Edmonton\u2019s Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n
This was the first of three meetings between the two best teams in the NHL between now and the end of the regular season. Dallas will come to Denver on March 18, while the Avs will be back here in North Texas on April 4.<\/p>\n
Both teams should be closer to full strength by then. Dallas played this game without Mikko Rantanen, plus new trade additions Michael Bunting and Tyler Myers. Colorado was without Artturi Lehkonen and Kadri, whom the Avs added in a deadline-day stunner from the Calgary Flames.<\/p>\n
Stars No. 1 center Roope Hintz did leave this game with a lower-body injury after he got tangled up with MacKinnon in the corner during the second period. He left the ice without putting any eight on his left leg.<\/p>\n
Want more Avalanche news? Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Yep, these are the two best teams in the National Hockey League. On a day where…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":638613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,136560,4830,271949,97351,2995,3260,1596,193247,40883,1370,44268,75670,71991,32532,69954,64269,293,111774,62,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,68429],"class_list":["post-638612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-artturi-lehkonen","tag-avalanche","tag-avalanche-insider","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-dallas","tag-devon-toews","tag-josh-manson","tag-latest-headlines","tag-mackenzie-blackwood","tag-martin-necas","tag-mikko-rantanen","tag-more-avalanche-news","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nazem-kadri","tag-nhl","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-valeri-nichushkin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116187837974947648","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}