Nathan MacKinnon scored twice in a three-point performance and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood won his Stanley Cup playoffs debut as the visiting Colorado Avalanche claimed a 5-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday to open their series.
Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews and Charlie Coyle also scored for the Avalanche to begin the Western Conference first-round series.
Blackwood made 23 saves and Logan O’Connor collected a pair of assists.
“He’s incredible,” Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar said. “When you have a guy back there that gives you that confidence — he’s very confident in the net — you know if you do something, make a mistake, he’s going to be there. He showed that tonight.”
Blackwood admitted to making an emotional debut in an interview on the TNT broadcast.
“I was pretty excited, a little bit nervous,” he said, “but then you’ve got to remind yourself it’s the same game you play all the time, maybe a little bit more emotions.”
Roope Hintz replied for Dallas, which opened the playoffs without its top defenseman, Miro Heiskanen (knee), and its leading goal scorer in the regular season, Jason Robertson (knee).
Jake Oettinger stopped 19 shots for the Stars, who have lost eight consecutive series-opening games.
Dallas, which finished four points ahead of Colorado to claim second place in the Central Division, also lost its final seven regular-season games (0-5-2).
“It’s probably the best game we’ve played in three or four weeks,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said.
Game 2 of the best-of-seven series will be Monday in Dallas.
Lehkonen opened the scoring at 9:30 of the second period with a lucky goal. His first shot off the rush was stopped, but he fell while heading to the net for the rebound and the puck went off his skate and into the cage.
MacKinnon doubled the lead at 16:38 of the period. During a power-play, the Colorado star sent a fluttering puck from the top of the left circle that eluded Oettinger.
“I thought we played a really solid game and, obviously, that was led by Nate (Nathan MacKinnon),” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said.
Hintz finally put the Stars on the board with a power-play in the third period. From the slot, Hintz deflected Thomas Harley’s point shot to make it a one-goal game at 6:45.
However, Toews restored Colorado’s two-goal edge at 12:56 of the final frame. Moments after Blackwood stared down Mason Marchment’s wide-open chance, Toews drove to the net and re-directed Josh Manson’s shot for the insurance tally.
MacKinnon added an empty-net goal with 3:08 remaining, and Coyle neatly finished a crisp passing play with Jack Drury 11 seconds later.
“I felt that everything was connected tonight,” Makar said. “We just have to find a way to continue to do that.”
–Field Level Media
