Rapid Recap: Avalanche 4, Stars 1 (Game 6)

The Colorado Avalanche earned a 4-1 win on Wednesday to force its second-round series with the Dallas Stars to go the distance at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
Defensemen Nikita Zadorov and Cale Makar tallied the first two goals of the game for Colorado, while Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each had a goal and an assist to extend their respective point streaks.
Michael Hutchinson stopped 27-of-28 shots to become the seventh goaltender in NHL history to earn his first two career postseason wins in games when facing elimination.

Miro Heiskanen scored the first goal of the game for Dallas in the first period, but Zadorov's goal tied the contest less than two minutes later.
The winner-take-all Game 7 will be on Friday.
Statistics
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Highlights
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Photo Gallery
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Postgame Notes
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Video: Coach Bednar
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Video: Michael Hutchinson & Cale Makar
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Video: Mikko Rantanen & Nathan MacKinnon

THE GOALS

1st Period
17:35 DAL (0-1) - Miro Heiskanen's shot from the top of the left circle beat Michael Hutchinson glove side.
19:28 COL (1-1) - Nikita Zadorov tied the game with a shot from the point, while J.T. Compher was battling with a Stars defender in front of the Dallas goal.
2nd Period
7:48 COL (2-1) - Cale Makar scored from the slot after Samuel Girard's shot deflected off Mikko Rantanen and right to him.
3rd Period
3:21 COL (3-1) - Nathan MacKinnon forced a turnover in the offensive zone and sent a saucer pass to Mikko Rantanen, and Rantanen one-timed it into the net.
17:14 COL (4-1) - ENG, Nathan MacKinnon's long shot found the back of the net after Dallas goalie Anton Khudobin left the ice for the extra attacher
Final: Avalanche - 4 | Stars - 1

3 STARS

Selected by NHL

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 0 for 5
Dallas: 0 for 1

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Michael Hutchinson started his second career Stanley Cup Playoff game and stopped 27-of-28 shots.
Dallas: Anton Khudobin allowed three goals on 23 shots.

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Cale Makar tallied his fourth goal of the postseason to extend his point streak to five games. It is his second run of at least that length in these playoffs, and he is now the second rookie in NHL history to record multiple point streaks of five or more games in a single playoff year, joining Don Maloney (1979, seven games and five games).
Makar has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) in 14 games this postseason, establishing an NHL record for points by a rookie defenseman in a single playoff year.

NOTEBOOK

Nathan MacKinnon collected an assist and added a goal to extend his point streak to 14 games, the longest in the postseason since Eric Staal had a 15-game run with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006… Mikko Rantanen tallied his seventh goal and added an assist to extend his point streak to nine contests… Only two other teams in the last 25 years have had two players with a point streak of nine or more games in the playoffs: Carolina in 2006 (Eric Staal with 15 and Cory Stillman with 13) and New Jersey in 2001 (Patrik Elias with 10 and Petr Sykora with nine)… MacKinnon leads the NHL with 25 points this postseason (nine goals, 16 assists). He has already eclipsed the scoring leaders from the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs, a mark shared by Bruins forward Brad Marchand (23 in 24 games) and Blues forward Ryan O'Reilly (23 in 26 games)… Nikita Zadorov scored his third goal of the postseason… With rear guards Makar and Zadorov finding the back of the net in the contest, the game marked the third time in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history that two defensemen have scored in a contest when facing elimination. The others were Erik Johnson and Nick Holden in Game 7 of conference quarterfinals in 2014 and Randy Moller and Blake Wesley in Game 5 of the division semifinals in 1985... Michael Hutchinson stopped 27-of-28 shots to become the seventh goaltender in NHL postseason history to earn his first two career postseason wins in games when facing elimination.

QUOTABLE

Avs defenseman Cale Makar on Games 5-6: "I think for these past few games our mindset has changed. Obviously, we are on the ropes and we have a team that's going to fight until the end here. The next one is obviously a very big one for us. It's going to be a fun one, but at the same time it's still going to be a test and we are going to need to bring our A game."

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

Ready to Battle.

ROSTER REPORT

Colorado utilized the same roster that it did in Game 5. Michael Hutchinson made his second career start in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

INJURY UPDATE

Forwards Joonas Donskoi and Matt Calvert, defenseman Erik Johnson and goaltender Pavel Francouz and Philipp Grubauer remain unfit to play… Blueliner Conor Timmins left the game midway through the second period and did not return... Forward Gabriel Landeskog left the ice with about 2:30 left in the middle frame but returned to the game midway through the third period.

UP NEXT

The Avalanche and Stars will meet in Game 7 on Friday at Rogers Place. The game time has yet to be announced.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
95 Andre Burakovsky - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
17 Tyson Jost - 37 J.T. Compher - 90 Vladislav Namestnikov
83 Matt Nieto - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 20 Conor Timmins
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
Goaltenders
35 Michael Hutchinson
32 Hunter Miska