Avalanche let the Stars back into the series, lose Game 2 in OT

The Colorado Avalanche had a chance to basically bury the Dallas Stars on Monday night.

They couldn’t do it.

Colorado fell 4-3 in OT in Game 2 of their Round 1 series, and this puppy is now tied up one game apiece.

Overtime was intense, and Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood made several great saves, but he couldn’t make one last one against Stars center Colin Blackwell with just more than two minutes to go.

Blackwell hit a knuckle-puck past Blackwood that seemed to be sitting there forever, and the Avs will head back to Denver all square in the best-of-seven dogfight.

COLIN BLACKWELL WINS IT IN OVERTIME!! 🤩

The @DallasStars have tied the series thanks to Blackwell's @Energizer overtime goal! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/Yli8qyEcQ1

— NHL (@NHL) April 22, 2025

It’s a bummer for Colorado, who was very close to taking a stranglehold on this thing. They held a 3-2 lead after two periods, but weren’t able to add another tally the rest of the way.

Evgenii Dadonov tied things for the Stars at 3-3 with just about 10 minutes to go in the third period. He battled for a rebound and beat Blackwood. Former Colorado star Mikko Rantanen took a penalty with 1:26 to go in the game, but the Avs couldn’t score and it headed to overtime.

The Avalanche committed three penalties in the final 10 minutes of the second period, but survived all of them. And with the score knotted 2-2, Colorado forward Logan O’Connor scored a goal that you will see on every highlight show in North America on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Too bad it didn’t come in a victory.

Logan O'Connor with a CRAZY goal! Avs lead 3-2 #GoAvsGo

pic.twitter.com/lesTtPRssN

— Denver Sports 104.3 (@DenSports1043) April 22, 2025

That was just unbelievable focus from O’Connor, somehow able to flip the shot with the backhand while barely looking at the cage, giving the Avs the 3-2 lead after 40 minutes.

Also scoring in the period was Jack Drury, just about a minute after the Stars took their first lead of the series. It quickly killed the momentum from Dallas, quieting down an American Airlines Center crowd that was desperate to get excited. Unfortunately, in the end they did.

The first period saw a pair of power-play goals, including Avalanche superstar Nathan MacKinnon opening the scoring fewer than nine minutes into the game. MacKinnon sniped a puck past Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger clean to give Colorado a 1-0 lead.

The Stars evened things up 1-1 with less than a minute to go in the frame. Dallas center Tyler Seguin beat Blackwood, although he got a piece of the puck. It still ended up in the back of the net, and the teams were tied at the first intermission.

Also of note was Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog taking pregame warmups and initially being listed as in the lineup, with Miles Wood as a healthy scratch. But that changed moments before the game, with Landeskog instead being scratched in favor of Wood. We’ll see if Landeskog plays on Wednesday night in Game 3.

That’s where all eyes will be in fewer than 48 hours, as whoever takes a 2-1 lead in this series will be thinking about Round 2. The Avalanche could’ve been in control, but that’s the way the Stanley Cup playoffs go.

And now, this should be a wild battle the rest of the way.

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