My Thoughts - Benn and Seguin Get it Done
The Stars win a thriller with everybody roping and everybody riding to an OT winner.
This team is back. I am sure of it.
No, they don’t have everyone back, but I am talking about this group that understands the finer parts of winning a road playoff hockey game.
They are, as far as I can tell, weathering storms, staying connected, keeping their patience, and ultimately, making a few extra moments come alive and poaching a road win.
Admittedly, you would like to hold a lead for more than 62 seconds in the first three games to feel like you have any sort of control of proceedings, but I thought all day yesterday that you would be willing to trade a lot to get to the third period within one goal after all the buildup of emotion for the return of Gabriel Landeskog. That is a very meaningful player to that organization, and his ultimate return for this game was always going to give the Avs a downhill ice rink, and it would be up to the Stars to deal with it.
But, if they could stay tethered and remain within a goal, while receiving the goaltending and penalty killing that they are known for, they could perhaps do what they seem to do so often in Colorado this time of year – find a way to get those late moments. And trust me, the Avalanche are starting to get tired of how often the Stars do this to them in the playoffs. We aren’t even talking about Joe Nieuwendyk in 2000. In the last three series against the Avalanche, the Stars have four overtime winners to break hearts, and the list is just an amazing collection of guys you would not put together very often.
Current Avalanche winger Joel Kiviranta
Former Avalanche star Matt Duchene
Colin Blackwell on Monday
Tyler Seguin last night
It was not easy and it was not by much, but the Stars outlasted the Avalanche 2-1 in Game 3 and now hold a 2-1 advantage in the series which seems to be slated to take all seven games, one would think.
These are my Three Thoughts (although there are many more to choose from):
Which moment of heart stopping adrenaline was your favorite last night? Which moment where both teams think they had the game won caused your heart to stop for a second? And which piece of furniture broke when Tyler Seguin ended this game after several moments of impending doom during a four minute penalty kill?
Obviously, the last thing you ever want to do if you find yourself on the ice in a Stanley Cup Playoff game is take an offensive zone double-minor for high-sticking another man’s face in the final minute. I realize that the victim, Brock Nelson, is bent down quite a bit, but Mason Marchment, a man who knows his way around offensive zone penalties, cannot let that happen for two minutes, let alone four minutes. But blood was flowing, and the rules are clear.
So, you can either give in or get stubborn. And we know that this group of penalty killers is a stubborn bunch. Esa Lindell played 8:09 shorthanded last night, and we know who Colorado wants on the ice for every second of that stretch. Cody Ceci was out there for 6:15 with him and has definitely earned his praise in this situation. Ilya Lyubushkin and Thomas Harley are the second choice when you have four straight minutes to kill. Then, up front, Oskar Bäck, Sam Steel, Mikael Granlund, Roope Hintz, Wyatt Johnston, and even our Colin Blackwell are doing everything they can to collect and send it back down the ice.
The main penalty killer is Jake Oettinger, and he had to make seven saves along the way, but let’s be honest, it was Lindell who made a few of his own the rest of the way.