Three Thoughts - Stars Respond in Game 2
They needed more from everyone to stay on pace at home and they got it done in OT.
There is nothing like it in sports: the sudden-death overtime winner that builds and builds and finally arrives.
You anticipate it, but you also dread it. It offers a peek at the moment over and over as each goal-mouth opportunity appears to be the end of the wait. But no—another false alarm. It is stressful, and it is amazing.
Finally, last night, when you least suspected it—because double overtime was looming around the next corner—Colin Blackwell ended things 77:46 after they started with a moment to scream at.
Dallas had finally won another hockey game, and with it arrived the belief that they had entered back into the mix in this series and wished to have a say before their funeral was scheduled.
With the all-important goal coming well past midnight, the Stars tied this best-of-seven series with the Colorado Avalanche at one game apiece. The series now turns to Denver, with each team feeling like they are right where they want to be—and reinforcements will be arriving soon.
These are My Three Thoughts from a riveting Game 2 in Dallas on Monday Night:
The hero last night was Colin Blackwell and I am positive this is probably the first time I have typed his name in any meaningful piece I have written about the Dallas Stars this season. He is a foot soldier who is a 4th line grinder or a healthy scratch on this team depending on what the team needs, but there is a chance he just scored the biggest goal of the season and maybe the one that saved the dream. He signed for $775,000 last summer which makes him the least-paid veteran on the team, but the performance of that 4th line swung the game last night and he has a moment he will never forget. That, my friends, is what playoff hockey is all about.
You know the cliché in the playoffs: your scorers have to grind and your grinders have to score. This is the essence of hockey, where sometimes the stars all cancel each other out and someone dressed will end the game with a moment of magic—who also may be the only player on either team to skate just 19 shifts on the evening.
That’s right. Every other player on both sides played more shifts than him and had more ice time than him. He was dead last in both categories, but maybe that just means he was well-rested and ready when the time arrived.