Mackenzie Blackwood shines in playoff debut as Avalanche bests Stars in Game 1
DALLAS Mackenzie Blackwood spent six years in the NHL without the chance to experience playoff hockey He was more than ready to make a great first impression Blackwood stopped shots in his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut helping the Colorado Avalanche to a - success in Competition of its opening-round series Saturday night against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and added an assist and for the second year in a row the Avs have a - series lead against the Stars This encounter was close until the Avs poured in three goals in the final And while the visiting band looked stout defensively for long stretches the Avalanche still needed its goaltender to make several fantastic saves After scoring goals in his first games Artturi Lehkonen couldn t buy one in the final games of the regular season He opened the scoring in Championship for the Avalanche with one of the oddest goals of his career Lehkonen shot the puck from near the top of the left circle As he darted toward the net after the rebound he and Mavrik Bourque got tangled up and Lehkonen s leg curled one into the top corner as he fell to the ice that would have made Lionel Messi proud There was an official review but the goal stood and the Avalanche led at of the second period We need to get to the interior of the ice more in their defensive zone and cause particular havoc in front of Jake Oettinger Avs coach Jared Bednar disclosed before the tournament That was certainly specific havoc Colorado s first big chance on the power play was a dud but Roope Hintz went to the box for bloodying Nathan MacKinnon with a high stick behind the Avs net late in the second MacKinnon made this one hurt His shot from the left circle deflected off Dallas defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin and fluttered past Jake Oettinger to make it a - lead with remaining in the period Related Articles Avalanche-Stars Tournament slapshots If Mackenzie Blackwood is going to play like this Western Conference is in trouble Avalanche Journal Colorado s path to a title looks much tougher than After season of injury adversity Avalanche is healthier squad in showdown with Stars Avalanche s new reality is here with playoff star Mikko Rantanen playing for the other guys How unprecedented roster turnover reshaped Avalanche for another Stanley Cup run Cale Makar s assist on MacKinnon s goal was his th in career playoff games He s the third-fastest defenseman to playoff assists behind only Bobby Orr and Al MacInnis The first big break of the series came less than five minutes in for the Avalanche Makar drew a pair of tripping penalties seconds apart to give Colorado a lengthy two-man advantage The Avs generated very little and the green-clad patrons roared to life after a sleepy opening four minutes for the Stars This was the first playoff appearance of Blackwood s NHL career and his first save was a big one turning aside a Roope Hintz offering after the speedy Finn got free during a rush Blackwood s best work came during Dallas lone power play of the first period as he turned aside five shots in those two minutes The Stars had only three in the other minutes Footnotes Avs captain Gabe Landeskog participated in the morning skate but did not play in Championship He has been practicing with the unit since Tuesday after playing in back-to-back AHL games with the Colorado Eagles this past weekend Those were his first hockey games since June Want more Avalanche news Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis
