Avalanche on the brink of elimination after a frustrating Game 5 in Dallas

The Colorado Avalanche had a brief moment of hope against the Dallas Stars on Monday night in Game 5.

And then they didn’t.

The Avs were trailing 3-0 in the second period before Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon scored fewer than three minutes apart to make it 3-2.

Unfortunately, a questionable elbowing call against Colorado defenseman Sam Malinski gave the Stars a power play shortly thereafter. Wyatt Johnston made it 4-2 Dallas and Mason Marchment extended the lead to 5-2, just 104 seconds later. That was basically all she wrote, and the Avalanche are now down 3-2 in the Round 1 series after a 6-2 loss.

Unless Colorado can win on Thursday night at Ball Arena and then on Saturday back in Texas, their season is finished way sooner than anyone had hoped.

And this game had a weird vibe from the jump. The Stars scored only nine seconds in to go up 1-0. Johnston got a lucky bounce off the boards then banked in a goal off Avalanche net-minder Mackenzie Blackwood.

A second fluky play helped Dallas very late in the first period, as a puck flew straight up into the air, hit the crossbar then Blackwood’s back and ended up in the net. Old friend Mikko Rantanen made it 3-0 early in the second period.

It’s one thing for those kind of tough breaks to happen to you in a regular season contest in February. It’s another to have it go down in Game 5 of a critical playoff series. The puck luck certainly wasn’t in Colorado’s favor in this one.

Blackwood only played 40 minutes, as backup goalie Scott Wedgewood replaced him for the third period. Many of the tallies weren’t his fault, but clearly head coach Jared Bednar felt getting Blackwood a bit of rest was the right move.

On the bright side, some of the best stories come from some crazy adversity. Maybe, seven games was how it was supposed to be for the Avalanche. That’s now the only way they can win this series.

It starts with taking a pivotal Game 6 on Thursday night in front of what should be a raucous home crowd. After that, anything can happen in a winner-take-all showdown.

This one was frustrating. However, the season isn’t over quit yet. It’s time for the Avalanche to dig deep.

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