Rapid Recap: Avalanche 4, Stars 0

Pavel Francouz stopped all 27 shots he faced to become the first goaltender in Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise history to record a shutout in his postseason debut with a 4-0 win against the Dallas Stars on Wednesday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.
The Avs held the Stars to six shots in the third period and outshot Dallas by a 40-27 margin in the win.
Cale Makar scored the first goal of the game for Colorado before Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi and Vladislav Namestnikov all tallied their first playoff markers with the Avalanche.
Donskoi and Burakovsky each added an assist as well to record multi-point outings. For Donskoi, it was his fifth mutli-point performance in the postseason. Colorado defenseman Samuel Girard registered two helpers for his first game with more than one point in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, doubling his career point total for the postseason (he now has four points, all assists).

Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each picked up an assist in the victory.
The Avalanche went 2-for-5 on the power play and 2-for-2 while killing penalties.
Highlights
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Photo Gallery
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Statistics
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Postgame Notes
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Video: Coach Bednar Postgame
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Video: Francouz, Makar, Namestnikov Postgame
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Video: Burakovsky Postgame

THE GOALS

1st Period
3:19 COL (1-0) - PPG, Cale Makar scored his first goal of the 2020 playoffs with a slap shot through traffic while on the power play.
15:29 COL (2-0) - Samuel Girard put the puck on net from the point, and Joonas Donskoi cleaned up the rebound by scoring with a backhand shot into an open net right after a power-play opportunity expired.
2nd Period
17:30 COL (3-0) - Vladislav Namestnikov found the rebound from a Nathan MacKinnon shot in the crease and scored his first playoff goal with the Avalanche.
3rd Period
1:31 COL (4-0) PPG, Andre Burakovsky's shot from the top of the right circle went off the crossbar and into the net to extend Colorado's lead to four goals.
Final: Avalanche - 4 | Stars - 0

3 STARS

Selected by NHL

POWER PLAYS

Colorado: 2 for 5
Dallas: 0 for 2

GOALTENDING BATTLE

Colorado: Pavel Francouz stopped all 27 shots he faced to earn the shutout win in his postseason debut
Dallas: Anton Khudobin allowed four goals on 40 shots

STAT OF THE NIGHT

Pavel Francouz stopped all 27 shots he faced to become the first goaltender in franchise history to record a shutout in his postseason debut. He also became the first Avalanche/Nordiques goaltender to record a shutout in his first postseason appearance with the franchise (NHL debut or otherwise). Dan Bouchard, Patrick Roy and Craig Anderson had shutouts in their third postseason appearance with the club. The last Avalanche goaltender to play his first-ever NHL playoff game with the club was Craig Anderson on April 14, 2010.

NOTEBOOK

Cale Makar scored his first goal of the 2020 playoffs and his second career tally in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (also April 15, 2019). The marker was his first career power-play goal in the playoffs… Makar's tally stood at the game-winner, his second career game-winning goal in the playoffs... Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky each scored their first playoff goals with the Avalanche and the 10th of their careers… Each forward also added an assist. It was the fifth multi-point performance of Donskoi's career and first since April 16, 2018 versus the Anaheim Ducks (one goal, two assists)... Vladislav Namesnikov, who was acquired by Colorado from the Ottawa Senators on Feb. 24, scored his second career playoff goal and his first with the Avs… With two assists, Samuel Girard recorded his first-career multi-point game in the postseason and doubled his career point total for the playoffs. The defenseman now has four points, all assists... Matt Nieto played his first game of the 2020 postseason.

QUOTABLE

Pavel Francouz on his performance:"I mean I felt pretty good, especially when I saw how we started the game. I felt like we were dominating, and we had some good chances and then we just kept scoring and scoring and I felt better and better every time. The guys helped me a lot today, they blocked a lot of shots on the penalty kill, so that one was really huge and it was a pleasure to play behind this team."

BIG HIGHLIGHT

IMAGE OF THE GAME

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ROSTER REPORT

Pavel Francouz made his playoff debut and Matt Nieto returned to the lineup and skated on a line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Matt Calvert. The only forward threesome that remained the same from Colorado's previous game on Sunday against the St. Louis Blues was the combination of Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Valeri Nichushkin. Vladislav Namestnikov began the outing on a trio with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, while Andre Burakovsky skated with Joonas Donskoi and J.T. Compher.

UP NEXT

The Avalanche finishes its Stanley Cup Qualifier games on Saturday with its third and final round-robin contest, a matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. Colorado won both of its games against Vegas this year, outscoring the Golden Knights by a combined score of 13-4.

LINE COMBINATIONS

Based on start of the game
Forwards
90 Vladislav Namestnikov - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
95 Andre Burakovsky - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
83 Matt Nieto - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 11 Matt Calvert
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
Goaltenders
39 Pavel Francouz (starter)
31 Philipp Grubauer (backup)