When the Colorado Avalanche return to the road for Game 5 of their Western Conference first-round series against the Dallas Stars on Monday, they’ll have their captain in the lineup this time around.
Gabriel Landeskog returned after a nearly three-year absence to play in Game 3 in Denver. Then he took another step in Game 4, scoring a goal in the 4-0 victory that evened the series at two wins apiece.
“Obviously, I’ve envisioned scoring again for a long time and then there were obviously days where I didn’t know if I was ever going to get to score again,” said Landeskog, who hadn’t played since the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs due to right knee woes that required, among other solutions, cartilage transplant surgery.
Landeskog and Brock Nelson crossed the Dallas blue line together before the latter fed the former at the top of the right circle and he snapped the puck into the net at 13:10 of the second period.
“That was my first shot on net in the last two games,” Landeskog said. “Got some good wood on it and (a) pretty amazing feeling. I think I blacked out for a few seconds and was just looking around for my teammates.”
Landeskog later assisted on the fourth goal by the Avalanche, giving him his first multi-point game since scoring twice in Game 3 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.
“I’m proud of him regardless of if he scores or not because I know what he’s gone through and how difficult that was,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “I think that just takes it to another level. You know that he wants to come back and he wants to contribute the way he did in the past and he’s off to a great start.”
After winning back-to-back overtime games in Game 2 and 3, the Stars are looking to regroup as they did after their Game 1 loss in Dallas.
“Obviously they were better than us (in Game 4),” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s all about your response in a playoff series like this.”
Jake Oettinger will be looking to bounce back for Dallas after allowing three goals on 34 shots in the first two periods before being replaced by Casey DeSmith.
DeSmith finished with 13 saves.
“We knew they were going to come out with a big push,” DeBoer said. “This is as close to a must-win as you can get for them.”
Dallas will try to keep the puck in the Colorado zone for longer stretches after getting outshot 48-23 — and 93-54 in total attempts — in Game 4.
“That’s a good hockey team over there,” Stars forward Tyler Seguin said. “They responded (in Game 4) and we’ve got a chance to do that at home in a couple of days. We never thought this was going to be won in four or five games, so we’re excited to respond at home.”
The Stars went 28-10-3 at home during the regular season, four points better than the Avalanche. That was the difference between Dallas finishing second in the Central Division over the third-place Avalanche and getting home-ice advantage for the first round.
“I think we know we can play better, and we have to play better, but we’ve worked to put ourselves in a good spot with three games left to go,” DeBoer said.
–Field Level Media
