DALLAS -- The Colorado Avalanche will try to take a 2-0 lead when they face the Dallas Stars in Game 2 of the Western Conference Second Round at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
The Avalanche scored four unanswered goals to storm back to a 4-3 overtime win in Game 1 on Tuesday after falling behind 3-0 in the first period.
“One thing about our group, I don’t think we’ve ever been overwhelmed by the situation,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “If you want to talk about last year, we were down 3-1 to Vegas (in the Western Conference Final), got it to a Game 6 here at home.
“It’s one game we lost in overtime that we could have won, too, so I think a little early for 'The sky is falling.' We’ll rebound and move forward.”
Colorado is certainly happy about the result of Game 1 but will clean things up and expect a stronger Dallas performance.
“There are aspects of our game we definitely have to be better at going into Game 2,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “We know we’re going to see Dallas’ best here tonight. Second game at home, they’ll be much better. I’m confident we can be better than what we were the other night, so that’s our focus.”
Here are 3 keys for Game 2:
1. Slowing Avs down
The Stars did a good job keeping the Avalanche at bay in the first period and early in overtime in Game 1, but the same couldn’t be said for the second and third period.
Colorado center Nathan MacKinnon, forward Mikko Rantanen and defenseman Cale Makar combined for seven points (two goals, five assists) Tuesday, and Dallas putting the clamps down is tantamount.
“(It’s) not giving them any free offense, turnovers, 2-on-1s, stuff like that," Stars forward Wyatt Johnston said, "(it's) doing our best to make them play in their own end. They can’t score or get any chances offensively if they’re playing in their own end. I think there’s a number of things, but those are probably the two most important things.”
2. Stirring up production
The Stars are still looking for more offense from some of their top players. Forward Joe Pavelski has one point in eight postseason games, an assist in Game 1 against the Avalanche. Center Tyler Seguin has no goals through eight games and center Roope Hintz has one.
“You can score doing it the right way," Pavelski said. "It’s not about cheating the game. there’s not a guy in there who’s looking to cheat it right now. But there are reminders (to) not be on the outside, get to the inside, get support, get around the puck, win some battles.
“You’re doing certain things, and you have to, at the end of the day, win an extra puck battle, make a play. There’s not a lot of secret to that. The game doesn’t change and the guys who are around it a lot have definitely had more success.”
3. Maintaining even keel
The Avalanche haven’t been stressed when trailing, as evidenced by their comeback in Game 1. Not surprising, considering they were 20-17-0 during the regular season when their opponent scored first.
“It just seems like any situation, we're not really too fazed by it in terms of, if we're up goals, if we're down goals, Colorado forward Andrew Cogliano said. "It seems like the route right now is very, very connected in terms of our belief, in terms of coming back in games, holding leads if we need to. It just seems like we have a lot of confidence in ourselves.
“We have a lot of confidence in our system, 'Beds' (Bednar) and our structure and our game plan that he puts forward every game. I think a lot of guys believe in and have full confidence in it.”
Avalanche projected lineup
Valeri Nichushkin -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen -- Casey Mittelstadt -- Zach Parise
Miles Wood -- Ross Colton -- Chris Wagner
Brandon Duhaime -- Yakov Trenin -- Andrew Cogliano
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Josh Manson
Jack Johnson -- Sean Walker
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
Scratched: Jean-Luc Foudy, Arvid Holm, Caleb Jones, Joel Kiviranta, Nikolai Kovalenko
Injured: Jonathan Drouin (lower body)
Stars projected lineup
Jason Robertson -- Roope Hintz -- Wyatt Johnston
Mason Marchment -- Tyler Seguin -- Matt Duchene
Jamie Benn -- Joe Pavelski -- Logan Stankoven
Craig Smith -- Sam Steel -- Evgenii Dadonov
Thomas Harley -- Miro Heiskanen
Esa Lindell -- Chris Tanev
Ryan Suter -- Nils Lundkvist
Jake Oettinger
Scott Wedgewood
Scratched: Ty Dellandrea, Radek Faksa
Injured: Jani Hakanpaa (lower body)
Status report
Forwards Kiviranta and Drouin were full participants during the Avalanche morning skate Thursday. ... Bednar said Kiviranta could "hopefully" be an option to play. … The Stars held an optional morning skate Thursday. … Marchment will return after sustaining an undisclosed injury in Game 2 of the first round and missing the past six games; he will replace Faksa, a forward.
NHL.com independent correspondent Taylor Baird contributed to this report
