More Engagement Needed For Avs in Round 2 Series

The difference in the first game of the Colorado Avalanche's Second Round series against the Dallas Stars was fairly evident for head coach Jared Bednar. The Stars were ready from the opening faceoff, while the Avs had far too many "passengers."

"When it comes down to it, [the Stars] were as a team engaged, ready to go," Bednar said. "We had a little bit of a slow start and weren't ready to engage and compete the way we need to to win the hockey game."

Dallas led 3-1 at the first intermission and went on to win 5-3 on Saturday in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.

While the Avalanche outshot the Stars 31-30 overall and 13-8 in the opening period, the play that Bednar saw from his team was not up to his expectations. Especially during the playoffs where every game means so much more than a typical regular-season contest.

"We made some bad decisions, some bad reads," Bednar said. "I'll give Dallas all the credit. They were engaged and ready to go to compete to win the hockey game. They were already one step ahead of us tonight. We did some not smart things. Our brains were not turned on and we weren't engaged, and it's kind of a lethal duo for us. We have to be way better. There is no use beating around the bush on it, everyone knows it, everyone watched it, you can see it. And we expect to be a lot better than that, and I'm sure we will be."

Colorado was able to tie the contest at 1-1 with a Nathan MacKinnon goal just 64 seconds after Tyler Seguin opened the scoring for the Stars in the first period, but Dallas found the back of the net again midway through the frame and added another with 3:32 left before the stanza.

The Stars' top line of Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov jumped on opportunities and space given to them and it resulted in three goals scored by the trio in the game.

"We kind of felt it out instead of really coming out firing and impose our will against them," said Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon. "I felt like we kind of put our foot in the water and just kind of wanted to see how they would play versus how we know how we need to play."

MacKinnon's game, and that of his linemates, wasn't an issue for Bednar. MacKinnon had a hand in each of the Avs' tallies with two goals and an assist, while Gabriel Landeskog registered multiple points (goal and assist) and Mikko Rantanen contributed a helper as well.

"I thought we were starting to come for a while, but we weren't. That was just our big guys playing," Bednar said. "Obviously our big guys had a good night. They were here to compete and win the hockey game, and we had a lot of guys that weren't."

Despite the way the Avalanche played, the team still had a chance to earn a victory. Colorado was able to cut its deficit down to one goal twice in the final 40 minutes of play and was still in striking distance to complete a comeback with plenty of time left on the clock in the third period.

"I think a lot of what happened tonight, I feel like it was a lot of self-inflicted as well." Landeskog noted. "We just didn't get up to the standard we have to play at at this point of season. We have to be a lot better, no doubt."

There is still a lot of time left to decide a winner in this conference semifinal series, as the Stars need to win four to advance and the Avalanche can even the set on Monday night.

Colorado is expected to practice on Sunday to refocus on its own game and get ready to produce a full-team effort in Game 2.

"You might be able to get away with one or two passengers this time of year, you're not getting away with any more than that, not against a team like Dallas," Bednar said. "That's on us, that's on me as the head coach, and we need to be way better. So we will take a day to prepare and look at some things, and then we got to get ready to get engaged in this series."

MACKINNON KEEPS ROLLING

After tying a postseason career high with four points in Game 5 against the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday, MacKinnon recorded two goals and an assist for his seventh career three-point outing in the playoffs. It is the second time in his 34 career postseason contests that he has produced three or more points in back-to-back games.

He last did it in his first two playoff games on April 17-19, 2014 against the Minnesota Wild. He is the first Avalanche player and the third in franchise history to record three-plus points in consecutive games multiple times (Quebec's Peter Stastny and Michel Goulet).

"I thought as a line, we played well," MacKinnon said. "We're tight with each other, made our life easy. Gabe (Landeskog) and Mikko (Rantanen) did a great job forechecking and creating turnovers."

The performance extended MacKinnon's postseason-opening point streak to nine games. It is now his longest such run at any point of his playoff career, besting his previous high of eight games from April 13-May 2, 2019.

MacKinnon's nine-game run also gives him sole possession of the second spot for the longest streak in franchise history to begin a playoff, with only Joe Sakic's 10-game run in 1996 being longer. The current Avs center's streak is tied for the second-longest of any kind during the postseason for the Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques, with Sakic's and Marian Stastny's 10-game run in 1982 topping the list

The Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, native now has 16 points this postseason to set a new career high for a single playoff year. He currently leads all players in the league in scoring, and his six tallies are tied for an NHL best as well.

INJURY UPDATES

It appears as if Pavel Francouz will be tasked with starting goaltender duties for the near future after Philipp Grubauer left 3:06 into the second period with an injury. Grubauer stretched to make a kick save on a shot before falling to the ice in pain and needed help from the club's training staff to get back to the bench and locker room.

"I mean you saw what I saw. Obviously he's in a position there where he tweaks something, and he's unable to continue, so that's already bad news," said Bednar postgame. "Time will tell how long he's going to be out, I have no idea at this point, but I'm not expecting him to be hitting the ice tomorrow or anything like that. It's going to be Frankie's net here."

Grubauer's injury came after Erik Johnson was hurt in the first period and Matt Calvert missed the contest as a late scratch as well.

For Johnson, he blocked a shot with his foot before getting tangled up with a Dallas player midway through the opening stanza. He returned to the game for the start of the second period but again left before the intermission after losing an edge on the ice. An alternate captain on the team, Johnson was able to sit on the bench in the third period, but he did not see any action.

"Erik obviously tweaked something as well. Thought he could go and tried it and wasn't able to do that," Bednar said. "[He] wanted to come out and try and help on the bench any way he could as one of the leaders of our hockey club."

Calvert's absence in Game 1 was his first of the postseason.

"A guy like Calvert usually brings the juice for us and we missed him," said the Colorado coach. "There were opportunities for other guys to step up, and some guys just didn't."

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

Colorado finished with 41 hits, the second time this postseason it has totaled 40 or more hits in a game (Aug. 2 vs. St. Louis, 40). The Avs' 41 hits are tied for the second most in a postseason game in team history (four times, last on April 30, 2019 vs. San Jose) since the stat began being tracked in 2005-06 (46, April 17, 2019 vs. Calgary).

Mikko Rantanen notched his eighth assist of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, equaling his career best from last season.

Samuel Girard registered his second multi-point game of the playoffs (also: Aug. 5 vs. Dallas).

Cale Makar finished with a postseason career-high 27:26 of ice time.