DENVER — The Dallas Stars tied the game in the third period, and Tyler Seguin scored the overtime winner in a 2-1 Game 3 win against the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Wednesday.

Playoff swings and moving picks (maybe)

The playoffs can swing like a pendulum. One moment you feel great and are creating chances, and the next you are staring up at a 1-0 deficit.

That’s what happened in the first period tonight.

Dallas looked great, really surprisingly (to me), controlling most of the play over the first five or six minutes despite Colorado being at home and getting the boost from their captain’s return.

The Stars drew a penalty and actually had a good chance to open the scoring for the first time in the series. 16 seconds later, Mikko Rantanen was called for tripping, the power play was over, and the teams were playing 4-on-4, a scenario that seems to very much favor the Avalanche.

Then came the opening goal.

I initially saw this as a moving pick, aka interference on Brock Nelson. But watching it over and over, I see how close it really is and why maybe the referee decided not to make the call. It’s unfortunate that it directly led to a wide-open chance and a goal, but the Stars defending is the real problem here.

Matt Duchene has the full view of the play developing, and it’s his guy who sets the “pick” on Thomas Harley. That means it’s his responsibility to let Harley know the pick is coming and to make the switch if needed. If he had confidently done one of those, Harley either sees the pick and fights through it to stay with Valeri Nichushkin, or Harley switches to Nelson and Duchene faces up Val in the slot — still not a great spot to be in, but better than what happened.

Even if Duchene didn’t fully switch on the play, there is no reason for him to be drifting out to the circle like he did. His man sets the pick and floated up top, nowhere near being a threat. It would have been nice to see Duchene just plant his feet in the slot and be there to support Harley. The same can be said for Seguin, and to a lesser extent, Ilya Lyubushkin. I understand it is a quick play, but it’s tough to see forwards covering their man up at the blue line or top of the circle when the danger is elsewhere.

But I am not an NHL player, and I know the speed of Colorado is a real threat… so maybe it’s better not to give them any space even away from the puck. Just didn’t work out on that one.

I spent the better part of first intermission discussing this play and the whole idea of man-on-man coverage, both 4-on-4 and 5-on-5, with former NHL defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk — who is now working for the NHLPA.

Shattenkirk played nearly 1,000 games with Colorado, St. Louis, Washington, New York (Rangers), Tampa Bay (where he scored the OT winner to put the Bolts up 3-1 in the 2020 Stanley Cup Final against Dallas — something we discussed), Anaheim, and Boston.

Shattenkirk said that man-on-man can be very effective, but if you don’t have a lot of defensemen who skate really well and end plays, it can put them in tough spots. He admitted to not being one of those and said he preferred to make contact and push the player into his support.

We all know how Luds feels about man-on-man…

Dallas has played this way under coach Pete DeBoer, and I can’t fault it much since they have been an excellent defensive team in his tenure. But it can also backfire, and with the team speed of Colorado, sometimes it leaves Dallas chasing shadows.

Hockey nerd out over.

Road playoff Oetter

I said in the DLLS Stars pregame show that Jake Oettinger is a different goalie on the road vs at home, especially in the playoffs. His .936 save percentage and 1.75 goals-against average on the road led all goalies (min four games) last postseason. He needed to be good tonight, and was he ever…

Oettinger is at his best when he is confident. He tracks the puck well, makes the right reads, whether to come out and be aggressive or stay back close to the goal line to give himself time to get over quicker. That’s what he looked like tonight, making huge stops on partial breakaways, in-tight chances, and long screen shots.

He also did this, which was pretty nasty.

He told me it was luck, but I disagree.

Without Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen, we knew Oettinger was going to be relied on.

Dallas has done a good job limiting the Avs chances 5-on-5, but their power play has looked good, and there have been some Stars breakdowns or transition rushes from Colorado that have turned into golden scoring chances. Oettinger did an excellent job not allowing that next goal and keeping his team down just 1-0 long enough for Jamie Benn to do this on the power play:

Oettinger finished with 27 saves on 28 shots, a .964 save percentage that only improves his numbers further.

I don’t know, thank you though,” Oettinger said when I asked if he had any explanation for his ridiculous road stats. “Just try to keep that going. Fun to play on the road when it feels like it’s 20 guys against the world. There’s nothing better than that.”

Good to see playoff Oetter… and also Benn scoring his first in 19 games. Does this count as No. 400??

How about the effort?

Gabriel Landeskog returned, the Avs returned home in a 1-1 series for their first home playoff game, Rantanen and Duchene were back in town on the other side… everything was set up for an Avalanche (hey, see what I did there?) in the first period. And the crowd brought it too, with many Stars players saying it was one of the loudest arenas they have ever experienced.

I expected Dallas to be on its heels, doing its best to weather the early storm and get itself into the game tied or maybe down a goal. Instead, the Stars tallied the first handful of shots in the game, outshot Colorado 14-5 in the first period, and despite trailing 1-0, were the far superior team. They had dips after that, sure, with the Avs controlling a large part of the second period.

But guess what? They stuck with it and found a way.

They found a way to kill all six Colorado power plays, including a double minor at the end of regulation and into overtime. They found a way to shake off the arena noise and emotional Landeskog return and just play their game. They held the Avalanche to just 13 shots through 40 minutes. They got the big saves from Oettinger (or Thomas Harley and Esa Lindell) when they needed it.

It was truly impressive.

“Just attention to detail,” DeBoer said. “We’ve got really good commitment from everybody to defend. I think when you put those names up on the locker room door of [Nathan] MacKinnon, [Cale] Makar, [Valeri] Nichushkin, everyone else they’ve got, there’s a little fear in the belly that I think helps with that. I also think we’ve had some guys come in and do a great job. I thought [Lian] Bichsel and [Aexander] Petrovic pair has given us some really quality minutes. Penalty killing, special teams have been good on both ends. Power play some key goals, penalty killing some key kills, but this time of year, that’s what you need.”

Then in overtime, the penalty kill holds for Mason Marchment. Rantanen makes a great play to fend off multiple Avs and slip the puck past Makar to Marchment down the wing. Rantanen goes to the bench while Marchment drives to the right of the net and protects the puck. Seguin comes on for Rantanen, collects Marchment’s pass from skate to stick, and puts it in the top corner to give Dallas a 2-1 series lead.

Again, it was really impressive.

“Gutsy win,” DeBoer said. “You go in after the game and you want to acknowledge some of the key guys and key plays, and really, I could’ve gone around the room. Everybody jumped in tonight and did their part. I thought we worked for a win, did a lot of really good things. Our penalty killing has been one of the best in the league the last three years. I think we felt confident going into the overtime that we could get the job done, and if we did, I think there was a good feeling that we were going to win the game. And knowing Mason and how he was feeling about that penalty, you couldn’t have written a better script for how it ended.”

Quotable

Stars coach Pete DeBoer on Gabriel Landeskog’s return and how Dallas handled it

“First off, I want to tip my hat to Gabe. Much respect. Can’t imagine the journey he’s been on. I’ve always been a fan from the other bench of him and his play. He’s got a Kitchener Rangers connection where I worked for a long time, so much respect. The game needs him on the ice, so it was great to see him out there. I think it was business as usual for us. We knew the rink, it was going to be electric. That’s as loud as I’ve heard it, and I’ve been in this rink for some loud nights. When they introduced him, I think that was a pretty special moment for anybody in hockey.”