Avalanche can’t overcome mistakes in Game 2 loss to Stars

DALLAS -- There’s no doubt the Colorado Avalanche have the depth to come back from multigoal deficits, something they proved in Game 1 of the Western Conference Second Round and almost did again in Game 2.

The key word is almost. Because the other thing the Avalanche repeated from Game 1 was making costly mistakes, and on Thursday those mistakes were too much to overcome.

“Did not like the second period at all,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said after a 5-3 loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 2 at American Airlines Center that tied the series.

“Just lasted too long. Too long of them dominating, too many odd-man rushes against, trying to make something out of nothing. Just undisciplined. Too stubborn with the puck and lacked the work needed to have success. Then we turn it around in the third, go to work and that’s what happens.”

Oh, the turnaround was something, with the Avalanche scoring three times in the third period. When Colorado forward Valeri Nichushkin scored his ninth goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs to cut it to 4-3 at 16:16 of the third, you couldn’t help but wonder if the Avalanche were going to come back and win again. It was looking like Game 1, when they scored four straight goals for a 4-3 overtime win.

Despite going on the power play with 2:55 remaining, however, Colorado couldn’t find an equalizer. Trying to come back from down 4-0 was too much, and the Avalanche’s mistakes, especially in the second period, are what got them in that position.

The biggest problem was the penalties they took. Two were for too many men, two others were for delay of game when pucks were shot over the glass.

“Just a lot of [penalty kills] tonight and it's tough to find rhythm in the game for everybody when we're just going to the PK,” defenseman Cale Makar said. “Those are unfortunate ones, just over the glass. It’s not like most of them, they're not in our zone. They're going over the glass in their zone, so maybe a little bit too strong. Then obviously too many men, that's just unfortunate.”

The Avalanche struggled on both sides of special teams. They couldn’t muster anything on three power plays. They allowed two power-play goals, both scored by defenseman Miro Heiskanen, at 14:46 of the first period and 15:54 of the second. They also gave up a short-handed goal by forward Tyler Seguin at 18:06 of the second.

Before their third-period comeback, in which Joel Kiviranta and Brandon Duhaime also scored, the Avalanche were stymied on offense. This from a team that had scored at least four goals in each of its first six postseason games. They came into Game 2 averaging 5.33 goals per game, most of any team in the playoffs.

Top-line center Nathan MacKinnon and right wing Mikko Rantanen were kept off the score sheet. Bednar tried different players at left wing with them to try to jump-start the top line, including Nichushkin, who started the game there, Zach Parise and Artturi Lehkonen.

“They’ve got to go to work,” Bednar said. “I think the guys got frustrated the quickest, the longest and they’re going to get keyed on this time of year. They have the ability to win games for us if they stick with it and are resilient, play the right way like they have all year. Tonight, in the second period, they didn’t. They got frustrated.

“I was looking for anyone who might give them a spark and help them kind of get their game going, but they’re also partly responsible for that. They have to take it upon themselves to make sure their game is right and in order probably longer than anybody else because they play the most minutes.”

The Avalanche still leave Dallas tied in the best-of-7 series. Game 3 is Saturday at Denver (10 p.m. ET; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN1, SN, TVAS), where they were the best home team in the NHL this season (31-9-1).

It was a frustrating night for the Avalanche, but they expected a tussle with the Stars. Now they’ll try to clean things up and regain the edge in the series.

“Obviously when you take penalties, you’re going to chase a game a little bit,” Avalanche forward Andrew Cogliano said. “You’re just behind it. We have to shore that up.

“At the end of the day, in the playoffs, you have to take the positives. It is what it is. We have to look at what we did wrong and correct it but we were down 4-0, we have a power play to tie it up at the end of the game there. So, we’ll definitely use that to propel us for the next game.”