Avs-Stars Game 4 Studs & Duds

The Colorado Avalanche responded to consecutive overtime losses with a 4-0 shutout of the Dallas Stars in Game 4. These are the Avs studs and duds.

Studs

Mackenzie Blackwood

This wasn’t the toughest workload for Blackwood as he “only” had to make 23 saves and stop four high-danger shots on goal, but he made all of the saves and from a goaltender’s perspective, it just doesn’t get better than that. Blackwood’s play in this series has been a relevation as he has been excellent in three of four games and is among the best goalies so far in the postseason in goals saved above average.

There wasn’t anything sexy about his game last night. Very few highlight-reel saves, which is always a sign of a defense and goaltender working in concert. Blackwood was reading the play well and shutting down the few chances the Stars mustered and then he handled his rebounds well.

His biggest save might have been one of his first as he got across on a Mikko Rantanen one-timer on the first Dallas PP of the game that kept it 0-0. Rantanen didn’t get all of it but Blackwood made life hard by getting across and not giving Rantanen much to shoot at.

Even for me, there are no real nits to pick here. You want your goalie to make saves, Blackwood made all of them.

Gabe Landeskog

An obvious answer, right? Landeskog‘s effectiveness in his first game back was surprising because he looked as sharp as ever. That only improved in his second game back as he moved up a line to join Brock Nelson and Val Nichushkin on a second line that completely dominated Dallas. It should be noted that all of Colorado‘s four lines dominated last night, but the Nelson line was chief among them.

Landeskog scored his first goal since the 2022 Stanley Cup Final when Nelson flew down the ice after the officials waved off icing and gave the Stars a free line change. It seemed to work in Colorado’s favor because Nelson picked up so much speed through the neutral zone that he was darting around Stars players and forced the defensemen to back way off instead of trying to hold the blueline.

Nelson used that extra space to find Landeskog, who picked a spot and rang his shot in off the post. It made the game 3-0 and, effectively, ended the competitive portion of the game. The Avs were outplaying Dallas and leading 2-0, but the energy from that goal sparked an onslaught of domination that only ceased when the final buzzer provided the Stars with a little mercy.

Landeskog also grabbed an assist on Sam Girard‘s third-period goal to make it 4-0 as he battled away in front of the net against the giant Lian Bichel and Girard’s shot glanced in off Bichel’s skate.

In the end, with Gabe Landeskog on the ice at 5v5, the Avalanche had an advantage in shots on goal of 14-1. Seriously.

Logan O’Connor

The Avs are tied 2-2 in the series after the Game 4 win and their two leading scorers each have five points. Those scorers would be Nathan MacKinnon and…this guy right here. O’Connor got the Avs going again when he bullied Thomas Harley at the blueline and stole the puck before racing down the ice and sniping home a gorgeous shorthanded goal.

That goal brought the building to life and gave the Stars a preview of their long night to come. O’Connor’s play was exceptional throughout as he spearheaded another excellent night by the Avalanche fourth line. The actual shot attempts aren’t overwhelming as O’Connor was out there for only 9:48 of 5v5 play and shot attempts favored the Avalanche, 11-7.

It was the quality that was so impressive in this game as the Avs generated six scoring chances and three high-danger chances with O’Connor on the ice while only allowing one scoring chance in that time. While the main head-to-head matchup for O’Connor was the Dallas fourth line, O’Connor and Co. also outplayed the top line of Dallas in their time against each other.

O’Connor has been Colorado’s most consistent player outside of Blackwood in the series but has also been a shockingly effective point producer as the fourth line of the Avalanche continues to do work. Special love to O’Connor’s linemate Parker Kelly, who finished the game with 11 hits. These guys made life hell once again for the Stars.

Everyone else?

The numbers in this game are completely lopsided, video-game type of numbers. In 50:04 of 5v5 time, here are the advantages for the Avs:

• Shot attempts: 87-38
• Shots on goal: 44-16
• Scoring chances: 44-18 (!!!)
• High-danger chances: 17-6 (!!!)

According to Natural Stat Trick, over the last three postseasons, those 44 scoring chances were the third-most and the highest by any game decided in regulation. The Avs finished with 4.57 expected goals, also the most of any game decided in regulation over the last three postseasons. In short, Colorado beat the hell out of the Stars.

Another amazing aspect of this? With seven minutes to go in the second period as Nelson was making his turn behind Blackwood to head up ice, the Avs had 20 shots on goal. Starting with Landeskog’s goal, the Avs put 14 shots on goal in the final 6:50 of the second period to go from a game the Avs were winning and outplaying Dallas to one the Avs were embarrassing Dallas.

Were it not for Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger playing brilliantly, the score would have gotten out of hand along the way. The Avs so thoroughly dominated Dallas that Stars head coach Pete DeBoer pulled Oettinger after the second period because he figured he might as well give his star goalie some rest since the team in front of him was getting run over.

It was a top-to-bottom humiliation. All four Avalanche lines finished above 60% in shot attempts with the Landeskog-Nelson-Nichushkin line finishing with a 22-4 advantage. Those are the types of numbers we used to see from Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen back in the three-headed monster days. It wasn’t even like the Nelson line feasted on the Dallas fourth line, although that also happened. The Avs had a 7-0 advantage in shot attempts when Landeskog was out there against Rantanen.

Overall, not a single Avalanche player finished below 50% in shot attempts at 5v5. That’s a pretty rare occurrence but especially so in a playoff game.

Duds

Discipline

The only major pockmark of this game from Colorado’s perspective was the persistent penalty problem. Ryan Lindgren took two separate Holding penalties in the third period, the first of which came just 1:35 into the final frame. That opened the door for the Stars to make a little noise in a comeback attempt and Dallas got quality chances but couldn’t break through Blackwood.

Colorado has failed to protect third-period leads in both Games 2 and 3, so the Avs coming out of a dominant second period and immediately giving the Stars a power play was disheartening. They need to do a better job of managing their game and playing smart situational hockey. The Avs obviously killed all four penalties, but that unit is doing a lot of hanging on for dear life right now.

The lack of discipline from the Avs has been a frustrating element of this series and something I hope they clean up starting tomorrow.

The Finns’ finishing ability

There are very few things to really “complain” about in this game, but one thing did stick out to me. Playing on separate lines, Joel Kiviranta and Artturi Lehkonen combined for gaudy numbers as they ended the game with 17 shot attempts (11 on goal), 12 scoring chances, and nine high-danger chances. For reference, the entire Stars team only had six high-danger chances at 5v5.

Their combined expected goals ended at 1.7, the Stars at 1.24. Goals, however, landed at zero.

This isn’t a huge thing, obviously, but Lehkonen’s goal-scoring problems that plagued him over the last 15 games of the regular season have carried over. His only goal was that wild kicking sequence in Game 1. He needs a real goal, one he scores intentionally. Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas helped create a bevy of chances for Lehkonen last night. He needs to bury some of these.

Avs Unsung Hero

Jonathan Drouin, I guess?

Drouin was dropped to the third line for Game 4 and was the only Avalanche skater to not hit 10 minutes of ice time. He hasn’t played very well in this series, though I thought he was much better last night and looked more like the player we’ve frequently seen over the last two seasons.

Still, it wasn’t a stellar night for Drouin but he did make one key play. With time winding down on what would be Colorado’s only power play of the game, Drouin won a puck battle along the wall and then craftily spun to protect the puck and backhanded a pass to Devon Toews back at the blueline. Toews found MacKinnon for the one-timer and the Avs went ahead 2-0 on the goal.

It was the typical combination of slick playmaking and vision we normally see from Drouin. I’m hoping he’s “back” after last night.