The Stars needed a response, and it couldn’t have come in more convincing fashion.
Scoring just nine seconds into Game 5 at American Airlines Center, the Stars showed up from the start and took down the Colorado Avalanche 6-2 on Monday to take a 3-2 series lead.
The Stars will have the chance to end the series Thursday night in Game 6 at Colorado.
The Game 5 win was important, as teams that lead a series 3-2 win the series 79% of the time.
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Here are five thoughts from the Stars’ best game of the series yet:
Stars humble Blackwood
The Stars entered the series feeling they’d have the goaltending advantage. Through four games, it wasn’t much of one.
Mackenzie Blackwood, who had never played in an NHL playoff game before this spring, was leading all NHL goalies in goals saved above expected. He posted his first career playoff shutout Saturday in Game 4.
But, finally, the Stars made him look human.
Blackwood let in two goals he should’ve stopped in the first period. The first came just nine seconds in when Johnston took a shot from a sharp angle that hit Blackwood’s back. Later in the period, Blackwood stopped a shot by Thomas Harley with his blocker, but it bounced over his head, and he backed the puck into the net.
The Colorado goalie allowed five goals on 17 shots through the first two periods. The Stars had scored just seven goals in the first four games before scoring five in the first 40 minutes Monday.
Former Stars goalie Scott Wedgewood entered the game in the third period.
Meanwhile, Jake Oettinger picked up where he left off Saturday night. After getting the third period off in Game 4 following an impressive first two periods, Oettinger made 27 saves on 29 shots Monday.
Johnston has arrived
The Stars have been waiting for their hero of the 2024 playoffs to arrive for four games.
He finally has.
Johnston scored his first two goals of the playoffs Monday. His first came just nine seconds into the game from a sharp angle. He scored similar goals in a critical overtime against Vegas last year and to clinch Game 7 against Seattle the year before.
It was the fastest playoff goal in Stars history and the fifth-fastest in NHL history.
When Colorado made it a one-score game in the third period, Johnston added his second goal on the power play after Sam Steel drew an elbowing penalty by Sam Malinski.
Johnston also added an assist on Harley’s first-period goal for a three-point night. Johnston now has five points in five playoff games.
Rantanen has arrived, too
Johnston wasn’t the only player the Stars were waiting for all series.
Against his former team, which traded him away just four months ago, all eyes were on Mikko Rantanen. While he made some noise in Game 3, helping set up Tyler Seguin’s game-winning overtime goal, Rantanen had yet to find the net.
Until Monday.
With a 2-0 lead, the Stars came out of the locker room early in the second period, and Rantanen’s new line with Roope Hintz and Mikael Granlund finally cashed in.
Hintz made the play in transition, finding Rantanen driving to the net for the score.
Rantanen has scored 35 career playoff goals and over 100 points. It was his first against the Avalanche, and what Stars fans hope is the first of many in a victory green sweater.
Stars get start they needed
While the series returned to Dallas tied 2-2, the Stars had led for just 62 seconds. Both of their wins were overtime comebacks.
The one regulation lead they did have in Game 2 was quickly relinquished.
The Stars needed a quick start and got exactly that. Johnston scored before Colorado even touched the puck, and later in the period, Harley gave Dallas its first two-goal lead of the series.
After leading for just 62 seconds, the Stars led for 59:51 on Monday.
Dallas also came out of the locker room with the same energy in the second period, reaching their first three-goal lead of the series just 1:12 into the second period on the Rantanen goal.
Stars weather Colorado comeback
Possibly even more impressive than the three-goal lead Dallas built was the way it responded after Colorado climbed back into the game.
Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon scored two goals just 2:27 apart midway through the second period to cut Dallas’ lead to 3-2. It felt like the Stars were bracing for a competitive third period with little margin for error.
But the elbowing penalty put the Stars on the power play and allowed Johnston to extend the lead back to two goals. Just 1:44 later, Mason Marchment deflected a shot by Alexander Petrovic to make it a three-goal game heading into the second intermission.
The Stars will need to find a way to weather a similar desperate push from the Avalanche at Ball Arena when they return for Game 6 with Colorado’s season now on the line.
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