Stars turn special teams into special win over Avalanche

Well, wasn't thatspecial.
In a game that surely would have been sanctioned by The Church Lady -- the old "Saturday Night Live" character portrayed by Dana Carvey who loved to say "Isn't that special," -- the Stars won a battle filled with special teams and gained a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven, second-round playoff series.
The 5-2 victory was special for the fact that Dallas found a way to come back once again from an early deficit. It was special in that the Stars' power play fueled the comeback with two huge goals from Joe Pavelski and Radek Faksa. It was special in that the Stars' leaky penalty kill bowed up and closed out the game by squashing the last five penalties the Avalanche enjoyed.

"We're not going to dictate the tempo of the game for 60 minutes," Stars coach Rick Bowness said. "We just had to settle down and we had to get back to playing our game, and we did."
After stunning Colorado in Game 1 with an aggressive start, the Stars were on their heels to begin Game 2. The Avalanche knew the importance of evening the series, and they dominated possession. Colorado had a 20-6 advantage in shots on goal in the first period and then took a 2-0 lead 8:44 into the second period. Nathan MacKinnon drew two separate penalties, scoring on the first power play and setting up Mikko Rantanen for the second goal.

MacKinnon has had a hand in every goal Colorado has scored in the series, and was dynamic again, with seven shots on goal in the first period and 12 shot attempts for the game.
Still, Dallas dug in.
After Pavelski was sitting in the box for the second power play goal, he came out and helped change the game. With Dallas on a two-man advantage, Pavelski one-timed in a nice cross-ice pass from Alexander Radulov to get Dallas back on the board. Forty-three seconds later, Radek Faksa jumped on a rebound and the game was tied.
Dallas also killed a two-man advantage for Colorado after that, but Bowness gave a great deal of credit to the skill players for coming through with the power-play goal.
"More important to us was that power play goal we scored 5-on-3," Bowness said. "That was huge, we needed that badly to give us some life. Then, that carries over onto the penalty kill. So your power play gives you life, and now the penalty killers go out and they know they have to do their job. And they did."

Goalie Anton Khudobin stopped 38 of 40 shots and won his fifth game in a row. He said the penalty kill was significant against a red-hot Colorado power play.
"On that kill, we got together," Khudobin said. "We got angrier and hungrier, and we stuck together even more. That's really important, especially in the playoffs."
Dallas has had a history of scoring goals in bunches during these playoffs, and they did it again Monday. Alexander Radulov had a puck deflect off of his shoulder five minutes after the Faksa goal for the eventual game-winning goal (the second game-winner in a row for Radulov), and then Esa Lindell broke up the left wing after killing a penalty and stuffed in his own missed rebound. It was a run of four goals in just under 10 minutes, and it put the Avalanche in a swirl.
"The one thing we're always talking about on the bench is momentum," Bowness said. "If you have a bad shift, you need the next line up to get momentum back. If we score a goal, we want to go right back at them, we want to attack. So it's more of a mentality of the moment. Right now, the puck is going in and we're getting the breaks. So, it's just momentum."
The kind of momentum that might be able to carry the Stars to the Western Conference finals for the first time since 2008. But while the odds do look good right now, you still have to win on the ice.

"The specialty teams took a lot of the flow out of the game, but you've got to survive that," Bowness said of his team's adjustments. "Give them credit, they came hard, Dobby gave us a chance to get our legs back, and we did. The playoffs, it's all about second effort. To see Blake Comeau making a block late in the game, and then you see Esa there. Pure effort. Good for Esa."
And good for the Stars, who seem to be finding a new hero each night.
"We've had some comeback wins. There's no quit in this team. For us to come out and do that in the playoffs, it's good.," Pavelski said.
However, he knows the challenges don't get easier.
"Until you can put a team away, you just can't feel comfortable," Pavelski said. "… That's a good team. We've done our job so far, but there's a ways to go. We'll catch our breath and see where we can improve in certain areas and come back at them."

Game 3: Stars vs. Avalanche (Dallas leads 2-0)

Wednesday, 9:30 p.m.
Where: Rogers Place, Edmonton
TV:NBCSN
Radio:The Ticket 96.7-FM, 1310-AM
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.
Mike Heikais a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on Twitter @MikeHeika, and listen to his podcast.