Despite a hard-fought effort, the Avalanche lost to the Dallas Stars 4-1 at Ball Arena on Saturday in Game Three of the Western Conference second round.
The Stars, who take a 2-1 series lead, received two-goal games from Logan Stankoven and Tyler Seguin, while Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev made 19 saves on 21 shots.
Stankoven opened the scoring at 18:39 of the first period with a wrist shot from the left slot.
Following an incredible effort on the penalty kill, the Avalanche tied the game at 10:24 of the second period when Mikko Rantanen scored his third goal of the playoffs by dispatching a rebound created by a Nathan MacKinnon rush that saw him dance around Stars defenseman Chris Tanev.
Dallas took a 2-1 lead at 15:13 of the second period when Seguin finished off a cross-crease pass from Evgenii Dadonov.
Seguin doubled Dallas’ lead with an empty-net goal at 18:23 of the third period before Stankoven added his second goal of the game with an empty-net tally at 19:32.
Game Four is at Ball Arena in Denver on Monday at 7:30 p.m. MT and will be broadcast on ESPN, Sportsnet, and TVAS.
