Avalanche Defeat Stars 7-4 in Back-and-Forth Game Six Thriller, Force Game Seven

Thursday Night Thriller

Valeri Nichushkin scored twice while Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar each posted a goal and two assists to help the Avalanche defeat the Dallas Stars 7-4 in Game Six of the First Round at Ball Arena on Thursday. Martin Necas, Josh Manson and Artturi Lehkonen each added tallies for Colorado while Gabriel Landeskog and Brock Nelson both posted two assists.

“I think it was a group effort," Landeskog said. "Everybody knew what was at stake. Everybody knew that we carried the play for the most part. [It] felt like we, like I said, [had] a couple of mistakes that led to their goals, and it felt like we got a little bit loose with some of our coverage. We knew that if we tightened some of those things up and we keep playing offensively like we were, we were creating enough scoring chances to score goals, and just had to find a way to get some behind (Dallas goaltender Jake) Oettinger. Patience paid off tonight and we got rewarded.”

How It Happened

Nichushkin opened the scoring at 6:29 of the first period with his second goal of the playoffs via a right-circle shot off the rush that deflected off a Stars player into the net.

“He’s a fiery guy," MacKinnon said about Nichushkin. "He’s one of the hardest working guys I’ve ever seen, so we knew he’d be ready. I thought everybody played really well tonight.”

Lehkonen doubled Colorado's lead at 18:40 of the first period with his third goal of the playoffs via a shot from the left doorstep that followed up Makar's slapshot.

Roope Hintz put the Stars on the board with a power-play goal via a shot from the doorstep at 1:18 of the second period.

The Stars tied the game when Mikael Granlund scored at 3:41 of the middle frame,

Necas gave the Avs a 3-2 lead at 4:34 of the middle frame with his first goal of the playoffs via a shot from the right doorstep set up by Makar's feed.

Hintz scored his second goal of the night to tie the game at 7:51 of the middle frame via a wrist shot off the rush.

Mikko Rantanen gave the Stars a 4-3 lead at 18:35 of the second period with a shot from the slot.

Nichushkin scored his second goal of the contest and third of the playoffs to tie the game at 6:02 of the third period when he cleaned up the rebound created by Landeskog's shot.

MacKinnon gave the Avs a 5-4 lead with his sixth goal of the playoffs at 9:04 of the third period when his shot from the left doorstep pinballed of several Stars players and into the net.

Josh Manson gave the Avs a 6-4 lead at 18:44 of the third period with his first goal of the playoffs via a long-range empty-net goal.

Makar scored his first goal of the playoffs with an empty-net goal at 19:03 of the third period to put the Avs up 7-4.

Next Up

The Avalanche travel to Dallas to face the Stars in Game Seven of the First Round on Saturday at 6 p.m. MT on ABC and ESPN+.