Gabriel Landeskog scored his first goal in nearly three years and added an assist, and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Dallas Stars 4-0 in Denver on Saturday night to even their playoff series.
Mackenzie Blackwood turned away 23 shots in Game 4 for his first career playoff shutout.
Nathan MacKinnon, Logan O’Connor and Samuel Girard also scored and Brock Nelson had two assists for Colorado, which bounced back from two overtime losses to Dallas in the Western Conference best-of-seven, opening-round series.
“Everybody’s seen how hard he’s worked,” MacKinnon said of Landeskog. “… It was more than just a playoff goal, it was a life goal. It meant a lot to all of us for him to score a goal and then have an assist, it was awesome. We missed him. There was a big hole in our room for three years.”
Jake Oettinger turned away 31 of 34 shots through two periods but was replaced by Casey DeSmith to begin the third. DeSmith made 13 saves in relief for the Stars.
Game 5 is Monday night in Dallas.
Landeskog missed 1,032 days with a right knee injury that required multiple surgeries, and he returned to the for Game 3 on Wednesday. It was his first NHL game since June 26, 2022, and Saturday night he scored his first goal in 1,041 days.
“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 the score again. So, obviously feels good, and it’s a tight playoff series and a big game here at home, get to do it in front of our fans, obviously means a lot.”
With Colorado ahead 2-0 past the midpoint of the second period, Nelson carried the puck down the left boards and slid a pass to the slot to Landeskog, who wristed a shot over Oettinger’s left shoulder at 13:10 of the period. His teammates swarmed him and the home crowd became raucous in celebration.
It was his first goal since Game 3 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final and was part of a dominant 20 minutes by Colorado, which outshot the Stars 22-5 in the second period.
The Avalanche continued to carry the play in the third period, holding a 14-7 advantage in shots. Girard scored his first goal of the playoffs at 10:46 of the third period to seal it.
Matt Duchene, the Stars’ regular-season leader with 82 points, acknowledged that it’s fitting for this series to go at least six games.
“We knew this was a conference final in the first round. We had one last year in the second round, we had one in the third round. This is four straight rounds of tight checking,” Duchene said.
Colorado entered Saturday night 2-for-13 on the power play in the series but scored twice on special teams in the first period. The first came short-handed when O’Connor stole the puck from Stars defenseman Thomas Harley at the Avalanche blue line, skated into the Dallas zone and beat Oettinger with a high shot at 12:39.
The Avalanche made it 2-0 at 19:36 of the first when MacKinnon’s one-timer snuck between Oettinger and the left post just seconds before a penalty to Mason Marchment expired.
–Field Level Media
