DALLAS — No , no ?
It indeed was a problem.
But for whatever this is worth in the no-orange-slices world of professional sports, there also was no quit in the Avalanche on Thursday night.
The penalty-prone Avalanche fell behind 3-0 after one period before getting goals from in the second and in the third to get within one, but ultimately fell 3-2 to the at the American Airlines Center.
With Duchene out for a third game after suffering a concussion last week and Landeskog still in Denver taking treatment for a lower body injury, Colorado ended up outshooting the Stars 36-22 and Dallas goalie Kari Lehtonen had to make several tough saves — including one on a point-blank MacKinnon shot midway through the third — to keep the Stars in front after the Avalanche closed to within 3-2. MacKinnon ended up with six shots on goal, giving him 16 in the past two games, with only the short-handed goal against the Stars to show for it.
“We were positive after the first and felt we could come back and I felt we should have tied it up,” said MacKinnon. He noted that he had “a couple of breakaways tonight, a couple of point-blank chances,” and added, “I have to finish those, for sure. It’s not good enough.”
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar sharply said “no” when asked if he took solace in Colorado coming back after the Stars scored two of their three first-period goals on the power play on a night when Colorado defenseman had a penalty hat trick — minors for hooking and holding in the first period and for high-sticking in the third.
“I loved our guys’ effort for the final 40 minutes,” Bednar said. “Unfortunately, 40 minutes doesn’t get the job done on many occasions. Especially when you’re that poor in the first.”
Avalanche goalie allowed the three goals on only six shots in the first period, but that was a bit misleading given the Stars’ territorial dominance and power-play time, plus a fortunate bounce.
First, Johnny Oduya’s shot caromed off Colorado defenseman ‘s leg in front and past Varlamov to open the scoring at 8:15. Only 34 seconds later, Zadorov drew the first of his minors and the Stars took advantage of the power play, with Brett Ritchie beating Varlamov from the top of the slot at 10:19. Then, after went off for slashing, the Stars’ Patrick Eaves scored to make it 3-0 at 19:39.
“We get mad and we decide to play in the last 40 minutes,” Bednar said. “We’re a good team when we decide to play like that. That’s as hard as I’ve seen our team compete for that period of time, all season long, 40 minutes. I love what we did in the final 40 minutes, but that’s got to be a Iesson learned for us. We can look at that and say it’s the new bar for our team, but it doesn’t get us a win.”
He said of Zadorov: “When you’re taking three penalties, you’re not doing something right and when you’re taking seven as a team, you’re not doing something right. … He needs to skate, needs to stop holding, hooking and slashing.”
Two minutes after Lehtonen stymied MacKinnon on a partial breakaway midway through the second period — MacKinnon raised his arms, but the puck went off the post and then under the legs of the prone Stars’ goalie short of the goal line — the 21-year-old Avalanche center got his third goal of the season to make it 3-1.
With Colorado defenseman ‘s delay of game minor in its final seconds, MacKinnon knocked in a pass from . Then Grigorenko scored his first goal of the season, tipping MacKinnon’s shot past Lehtonen at 1:51 of the third.
With Duchene and Landeskog both out, Bednar started out with a top line of MacKinnon centering Martinsen and the just-recalled 19-year-old, A.J. Greer, playing his second NHL game, before tweaking his combinations. Greer had the second assist on Grigorenko’s goal for his first NHL career point.
