DALLAS — Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist and Colorado opened its first-round series with a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars on Saturday night. Mackenzie Blackwood made key saves in his playoff debut and the Avalanche took control with a pair of unusual second-period goals.
Blackwood, making his playoff debut after 252 regular-season games spread over seven NHL seasons, stopped 23 shots. He also turned aside four attempts in 11 seconds midway through the second period, a stretch that helped preserve Colorado’s edge.
MacKinnon’s second-period goal came on a shot that deflected off Stars defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin and fluttered past goalie Jake Oettinger. That tally followed a double-minor penalty after MacKinnon took a high stick to the face. He finished the night by scoring into the empty net for his 50th career playoff goal.
“I thought it was solid, really solid,” MacKinnon said of the opener of the Avs’ eighth consecutive postseason. “We had a lot of good looks, a lot of attempts. Maybe hit the net a little bit more, but I thought we played a pretty solid two-way game.”
Artturi Lehkonen also scored in the second when a rebound glanced off his lower left leg and into the top corner while he was tumbling after a collision in front of the net. Officials reviewed the play and ruled there was no kicking motion on the shot.
Coach Jared Bednar praised MacKinnon’s work on both ends. “Obviously they’re going to key on him like we do on some of their players,” Bednar said of last season’s NHL MVP. “But really strong defensive game from him, and obviously get-up and go on the offensive side. He was making plays all night.”
Dallas got a goal from Roope Hintz to cut the lead to 2-1 in the third, but Devon Toews restored a two-goal margin with 7:04 left. MacKinnon’s empty-netter came with 3:08 remaining, and Charlie Coyle added a goal 11 seconds later.
Stars coach Pete DeBoer noted his team has often recovered after early setbacks. “I guess the good news is we’ve come back and won more than our share of those series where we have (lost Game 1),” said DeBoer, whose teams reached the West final the past two seasons. “So I think we got to concentrate on that.”
Oettinger finished with 19 saves. Colorado drew two tripping penalties on one play in the first when Cale Makar was called twice within 36 seconds, and Oettinger stopped three shots during that two-man advantage.
The loss continued a rough finish to the Stars’ regular season. They went 0-5-2 down the stretch, a slump that included four home losses after a 28-5-3 stretch earlier in the year.
Blackwood is one of 11 players in Colorado who have played since the club made eight in-season trades. Those moves included Colorado trading Mikko Rantanen on Jan. 24 to Carolina; a March 7 deadline deal later sent him to the Stars and included a $96 million, eight-year contract extension. Rantanen, who had 101 points (34 goals, 67 assists) in 81 playoff games for Colorado, had three shots on goal and one block over 18 minutes in his postseason debut with Dallas.
Bednar earned his 50th playoff win with the Avalanche in his 82nd postseason game, the equivalent of a full regular season. That moved him past Bob Hartley for the most playoff wins by a coach in franchise history; both coaches won Stanley Cups with the club.
Game 2 is Monday night in Dallas before the series shifts to Denver for Games 3 and 4. The teams will regroup and try to adjust as the series continues.
