Avalanche expecting 'desperate' Stars in Game 2 of Western 2nd Round

DALLAS -- The Colorado Avalanche know what they have to improve upon for Game 2 of the Western Conference Second Round.

The Avalanche rallied from three goals down for a 4-3 overtime win against the Dallas Stars in Game 1 at American Airlines Center on Tuesday, but if they want to go home with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series, which would be the best case scenario considering they had the best home record in the NHL during the regular season, then they are going to have to clean up some parts of their game.

"Our forecheck has got to be better," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday. "We got caught underneath the puck a number of times and gave up some odd-man rushes. Our 'D' did a nice job handling those odd-man rushes and limiting their scoring chances, but too many dangerous situations for my liking is the first one."

Some of those came in the first period, when the Stars built a 3-0 lead against the Avalanche, who looked out of sorts and seemed to struggle to find their legs after not playing for six days. They were undisciplined, committing three penalties, including giving the Stars a 5-on-3 for 1:32, during which they scored their third goal.

"It's tightening up some things, trying to limit their pushes because they're a good team and when they get rolling, they can create some momentum for themselves," said Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson, who had three blocked shots.

"Early on, we weren't playing exactly how we wanted to. (It's) tightening that up for the full game, limiting their pushes, because they're going to have pushes. I don't think you can stifle that team for a full 60 minutes, but limiting their chances as best we can off our own mistakes."

Part of struggling out of the gate could have been because the Avalanche hadn't played since April 30. Sure, they practiced a few times while they waited to see who their opponent would be with the Stars and Vegas Golden Knights going to Game 7 in the first round, but it's hard to replicate game level in practice.

"Coming out of the break, some players handled it really well and were ready to go and were dialed in on the detail part of the game and the work ethic that's needed, the competitiveness that's needed in this series, and it took some other guys a little bit longer to get there," Bednar said.

"But that's part of the reason why I said we have another step we can take here. We need everyone going from the drop of the puck tomorrow night."

Clearly, the Avalanche recovered in Game 1, dominating the second and third periods, but getting off to a strong start in Game 2 will be key.

The Stars lost the first two home games in their series against the Golden Knights. They rebounded to win four of the next five to advance.

The Avalanche can do no worse than a split in Dallas before going back to Ball Arena, where they were 31-9-1 in the regular season. They were 2-0 there in the first round and are hoping to put the team that finished atop the Western Conference in another 2-0 series hole.

"We talked about a few things today that we need to do better," Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano said. "Just things we needed to clean up. Their strengths of their game were still evident last night that we need to make sure we shore up tomorrow to give us a better chance.

"Overall, our game was a good game. We got better as the game went on, our forecheck got going and we played the way we wanted to play. But they're going to be desperate in terms of getting a win on home ice for themselves. We'll have to go over what we did, what we saw and what their game plan is and hopefully get better at neutralizing that."