The Dallas Stars won a hard-fought divisional battle against the Colorado Avalanche with a score of 5-4 in a shootout.
Thomas Harley, Nathan Bastian, Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston scored for the Stars. Robertson and Mikko Rantanen scored in the shootout. Jake Oettinger made 35 saves in the win.
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Martin Necas, Gavin Brindley, Artturi Lehkonen and Nathan MacKinnon scored for the Avalanche. Valeri Nichushkin scored in the shootout. Scott Wedgewood made 18 saves in the loss.
Summary of the game
The Stars struck first late in the first period on Saturday night with a vicious shot from Harley at the top of the right circle after a perfect pass from Rantanen, who was across the zone and the bottom of the left circle.
Necas answered for the Avalanche at 3:54 of the second with a wrist shot that beat a diving Oettinger just under the crossbar.
The Avalanche took the lead at 10:07 when Olofsson put Brindley in front of the net, who beat Oettinger past his left path.
Bastian scored his first goal as a member of the Stars in a move similar to Brindley’s goal just five minutes earlier. Lindell found Bastian in front of the net and Bastian slid the puck past Wedgewood to tie the game at 2-2.
Robertson scored his second of the season three minutes later with a tip-in of Harley’s shot from the point, putting the Stars up 3–2 heading into the third period.
Lehkonen tied the game at 3-3 just 34 seconds into the final period with a backdoor shot off a cross-crease pass from MacKinnon.
94 seconds later, Johnston went forehand-backhand in a beautiful breakaway move to beat Wedgewood inside the left post.
At 10:46, during the second half of a four-minute power play, MacKinnon took a pass at the right faceoff point and snapped it over Oettinger and right under the crossbar to tie the game again, this time at 4–4.
Both netminders were phenomenal down the stretch to take this game to overtime, and Oettinger in particular was spectacular in giving his team a chance to win in the shootout, which they ultimately did.
The Avalanche outscored the Stars 39-22, going 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Stars went 0-for-2 with the man advantage.
Next
Next, the Avalanche will arrive Buffalo on Monday afternoon to beat the Sabers, while the Stars will host the Wild for their home opener on Tuesday evening.
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