Front Range
Hintz wins it in the fourth round as Stars beat Avalanche 3-2 in a shootout to split the set
Colorado had two first-period goals taken off the board, tied the game in the third on Brock Nelson's goal, and still took a point. Casey DeSmith made 25 saves for Dallas and the 100th win of his career.
DENVER
For the second straight night the Avalanche and the Stars played a 3-2 game, and this time the extra point went the other way. Dallas won the shootout 2-1 in four rounds on Wednesday at Ball Arena, with Jason Robertson scoring on the first shot, Nazem Kadri answering for Colorado in the second round, and Hintz beating Scott Wedgewood in the fourth before DeSmith closed it out against Nelson.
Colorado's frustration started early. The Avalanche had two goals taken off the board in the first period: the first on a successful Dallas offside challenge less than two minutes into the game, on a play the team recap credited to Jaden Schwartz, and the second when a review ruled that Gabriel Landeskog had used a distinct kicking motion to put the puck in the net. The period ended scoreless despite the pressure.
Landeskog got one that counted at 4:55 of the second. Sam Malinski stole a Tyler Seguin clearing attempt at the blue line and sent a pass to Kadri along the left boards, and Landeskog deflected Kadri's shot past DeSmith. It was Landeskog's second goal of the season, and Kadri finished the night with two assists. Miro Heiskanen tied the game at 15:03 of the second, roofing a shot over Wedgewood's right shoulder on a pass through the slot from Mikko Rantanen.
Dallas took the lead the hard way, on the penalty kill. At 1:20 of the third period Arttu Hyry took the puck from Cale Makar, broke away and beat Wedgewood for the first short-handed goal of the season for the Stars and the third short-handed goal Colorado has allowed. Gavin Brindley nearly tied it minutes later, hitting both posts, before Nelson did tie it at 8:21, knocking in the rebound of an Artturi Lehkonen shot. Neither team scored in overtime.
The goaltenders held the game together. DeSmith made 25 saves through overtime and three more in the shootout, and NHL.com noted the win was the 100th of his career. Wedgewood stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced for Colorado and kept the game scoreless into the second period, including a stop on Seguin's turnaround shot from the right circle at 4:04 of the second, less than a minute before Landeskog's goal.
Makar was back in the lineup a night after staying in Denver for the birth of his twins, and he finished plus-1 with two shots in 22:54 of ice time. Colorado played without forwards Nicolas Roy, who missed the game with an injury and is considered day to day, and Zachary L'Heureux, scratched with an upper-body injury. Dallas forward Wyatt Johnston missed his second straight game with an illness, and Stars forward Oskar Back left in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return.
The split leaves Colorado at 4-2-1 and Dallas at 3-3-1, with three points to the Avalanche and two to the Stars across the two nights. Colorado head coach Jared Bednar, in NHL.com's account, praised his team's effort across the two games while faulting its second-period habits on Wednesday. The Avalanche stay home next, hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night at Ball Arena.
