Avalanche waste the return of Gabriel Landeskog, lose in OT to Stars again

The Colorado Avalanche welcomed back captain Gabriel Landeskog on Wednesday night in an emotional evening.

But there was still a playoff game to win — a critical one at that.

Tied one game apiece in their Round 1 series with the Dallas Stars, the Avs went to OT for the second straight outing.

And they lost again, this time 2-1 to fall down 2-1 in the series.

Colorado opened overtime with a 3:20 power play, but looked disjointed and could never really get set up. The momentum from a massive Dallas kill carried them to a victory just a couple of minutes later. Tyler Seguin beat Avalanche goalie Mackenzie Blackwood with a snipe, and for the second straight game Colorado skated off losers in heartbreaking fashion.

THE STARS WIN AGAIN IN OVERTIME!! 🤩

Tyler Seguin scores the @Energizer overtime winner, and the @DallasStars have a 2-1 series lead! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/SwhKHi3G4Y

— NHL (@NHL) April 24, 2025

It was really the inability to take advantage of what happened to Nelson that burned the Avs, among other things.

Tied 1-1 in the third period with 40 seconds to go, Nelson got hit in the face by an errant stick from Dallas winger Mason Marchment. He was assessed a four-minute penalty. The Avs couldn’t score in the final 39.5 seconds of regulation, but that set up a long power-play to start overtime. And still, no dice.

What was frustrating is the Avalanche once again led for the majority of the game, but are somehow two losses from their season ending.

Up 1-0, Colorado was the victim of a couple questionable penalty calls back-t0-back in the third period, and the second one burned them. First, Artturi Lehkonen was sent off for holding. The Avalanche killed that one, but moments later the officials dinged Nathan MacKinnon for “interference.” There didn’t seem to be much there, especially in the third period of a playoff game. 

Regardless, the Stars capitalized just nine seconds into their power-play and the game was tied with a little more than 10 minutes to go. Jamie Benn was able to get a puck past Blackwood.

The second period saw no tallies on the board, although both Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger and Blackwood made some great saves. Oettinger robbed Nelson near the very start of the frame and MacKinnon near the very end. 

The Avs also had a bad power-play only two minutes into the period after the Stars committed a silly too many men on the ice penalty. They could never get set in the Dallas zone, just like in OT, and failed to extended their 1-0 lead. Still, Colorado went to the third period with a lead for a third straight game in this series. It didn’t hold in the third period, just like in Game 2.

For the first time in nearly three years, head coach Jared Bednar was able to start the contest with Landeskog, which was one of the only bright spots. And Ball Arena went absolutely ballistic when he was announced pregame. It was a legitimate 30-second ovation and “Landy” chants echoed throughout after his name was called.

Once that died down, only slightly, there was still a hockey game to play. Landeskog did hit his old friend Mikko Rantanen hard on his opening shift, but surprisingly, the Avalanche actually looked flat in the first. Luckily, one unbelievable play from forward Valeri Nichushkin made up for getting outshot 13-5.

Nichushkin somehow escaped behind the entire Stars defense and beat Oettinger on a filthy move. That made it 1-0 Colorado, and despite the shot differential, the Avs headed to the locker room with the early lead.

That lead didn’t last… again. And now the Avalanche basically have to win Game 4 on Saturday night at home at Ball Arena — or summer break could come way sooner than anyone would like.

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