Five-Goal First Period Helps Avalanche Stave Off Elimination

Facing down the barrel of elimination, the Colorado Avalanche responded to play another day and force a Game 6.
The Avalanche won 6-3 on Monday in Game 5 of the Round 2 series, and the victory came in a very Dallas Stars-esque way as well. Colorado scored five goals in the opening period, including four in a matter of 2:36, to break open the contest and tighten the best-of-seven series at 3-2.

"Tonight, our guys were ready to go," said Avs head coach Jared Bednar. "We're facing elimination, our backs are against the wall, and they came out guns blazing. I just feel like there was real good purpose to our game. We're good in our structure, our execution was good, a lot of speed coming through the neutral zone. Just doing the right things, everybody on the same page and we get rewarded. We capitalized on some of our chances early in the game."
The Avs' five goals in the period were their most in a single postseason frame in franchise history, and their four goals in 2:36 midway through the stanza set a new Colorado/Quebec Nordiques record. In fact, it was just one second shy of tying the NHL's postseason mark of 2:35 set by the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of the 1944 semifinals against the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Dallas has come to be known in these playoffs as a club that can battle back from any deficit with a bunch of markers in a short period of time, but it was Colorado that jumped on opportunistic rebounds and was finally rewarded for its hard work in the opening 20 minutes.
"I think there are so many things we did in the first period. I don't know if we had a turnover with the puck through the first period," Bednar said. "I thought we were skating real well, tenacious group, all of the things that I want to see out of our team. And they (Dallas) might not have had a strong start, but for me, we were doing what we needed to do. We capitalize on some chances, we're pushing the pace to the game."
The Avalanche's 23 shots on goal in the first stanza also set a franchise postseason mark for a period. The Stars only had five shots on the other side of the ice.
Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop was playing in his first game since Aug. 13 and made 15-of-19 saves before being replaced in net with nearly eight minutes to go before the intermission,
"After the start we had last game, we wanted to come out firing and definitely have a lot of O-zone time and throw as many pucks as possible on net with him not playing for a while. So that was kind of the game plan," said defenseman Conor Timmins.
The start to Game 5 was almost a complete opposite from what occurred 24 hours earlier when the Stars took a 3-0 lead and outshot the Avalanche 10-5 in the first period of Game 4.
The morning after the 5-4 loss to put the Avs on the brink, Bednar said his team was angry and had a snarl to its mood following a pregame meeting. Colorado sure played like that at the beginning of Game 5 to keep its Stanley Cup hopes from bursting.
"We hadn't played an Avs game yet, and we weren't happy with the start last game and we decided tonight that we're going to try and be better," said forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. "Obviously we know we have a good group, and it was just a matter of time before we understood that we had to play that way. It didn't really matter the situation, we just came out and played as hard as we could. I wish we played the same way for 60, but I'm really happy about the start, for sure."
The Stars tightened the contest a bit with two tallies in the second period and added another in the third, but the Avalanche never allowed Dallas to stage another postseason rally.
The Avalanche now needs to respond again on Wednesday in Game 6 if it wants to even the series and force a decisive seventh game. Bednar is confident his squad can do it again and stave off elimination for another night.
"I know they want it; they're working hard for it, they don't want to give up on it. It doesn't guarantee a victory, you got to go out and play well and execute, but I knew we were going to come and play hard tonight," Bednar said. "I just got that feeling that we would be engaged and competing at a level that we could win the hockey game if we played well. We got some performances tonight, we got a bunch of them. Now we got to go do it again."

HUTCH A GO

Michael Hutchinson made his first career Stanley Cup Playoff start in goal for the Avalanche after Bednar said Pavel Francouz was determined to be unfit to play following Sunday's Game 4.
"It's exciting. I've had a pretty long career so far and this is my first playoff start," Hutchinson said. "When you get that news, first thing in my mind was excitement. It's what you work for. As a kid, any dream when playing in the backyard is playing in the Stanley Cup Final and Stanley Cup Playoffs. Myself, I was excited and was looking forward to the opportunity to get a chance to play."

Hutchinson didn't have a lot of work early as he only faced 16 shots in the first 40 minutes of play--including only five in the first period--but he was tremendous in the last frame and helped the Avs stave off another Stars comeback during these playoffs. He made 17 of his 31 saves in the game in the third period to pick up his second victory in an Avalanche uniform.
The 30-year-old's first win in burgundy and blue came during his debut with the club on March 2 against Detroit, a 2-1 victory.
The Barrie, Ontario, native appeared in his first postseason game on Sunday night as he stopped all three shots he faced in 9:21 of relief duty. He is the second Colorado goalie in these playoffs to earn the win while making his first career postseason start, joining Francouz who did so on Aug. 5 against Dallas during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers.
Colorado has now used three goaltenders in the postseason for the second time in franchise history and the first since the Quebec Nordiques had Stephane Fiset, Jocelyn Thibault and Garth Snow guard the pipes in the 1995 playoffs.

RARE COMPANY

Andre Burakovsky recorded a playoff career-high three points to become the fourth Avalanche player in the last 20 years to post three or more points in a potential elimination game.
Teammate J.T. Compher (two goals, one assist) was the last player to do it in Game 6 of the 2019 Second Round against the San Jose Sharks. Before that, it occurred in the 2001 Stanley Cup Final versus the New Jersey Devils when Adam Foote had a goal and two assists in Game 6 and Alex Tanguay had two tallies and a helper in Game 7.
Burakovsky's two-goal, one-assist outing on Monday marked his fourth multi-point effort this postseason and his fourth career two-goal contest in his playoff career.
"For me, I just love those games," Burakovsky said of having success in elimination games. "Coming out, it's a must-win situation where you have to win. I like playing under pressure… I think I really enjoy playing those big games and pucks are going in."
In his first season in Colorado, he recorded new career highs with 20 goals, 25 assists and 45 points in 58 contests.

TIMMINS DEBUT

Conor Timmins skated in his first career game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and suited up in his first contest for the Avalanche since the opening week of the regular season.
Timmins began the night on a defensive pairing with Samuel Girard and saw some decent ice time at 14:44. He recorded two hits, two blocked shots and finished with a plus-1 rating.
"Obviously really excited, playing my first playoff game. I just tried to keep it simple tonight, make quick passes and spend as little time in the D-zone as possible," Timmins said. "The guys were great around me, helping me when I needed it, and it was a great team win."
The blueliner made Colorado's team out of the regular season training camp 11 months ago and appeared in the first two games for the squad before being reassigned to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League to get more playing time. The 21-year-old registered 27 points (three goals and 24 assists) in 40 AHL contests during his first professional campaign.

MORE POSTGAME NOTES

The game marked the fourth time this postseason that Colorado has scored six or more goals, matching the 1997 club for the most such offensive outings in the playoffs.
Nathan MacKinnon notched two points (1g/1a) and has a league-leading 23 points in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He now has 52 career points in the postseason, moving into a tie for 10th place (Anton Stastny) in franchise history.
MacKinnon extended his point streak to 13 games, the longest such playoff run since Chicago's Jonathan Toews had a 13-game stretch in 2010. MacKinnon is one of three players to have a point streak of 13 or more contests to start the postseason, joining Bryan Trottier (18 games in 1981), Mark Messier (14 games in 1988 and 13 games in 1994), Bobby Orr (14 games in 1970 and 13 games in 1972).
MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri each have eight goals this postseason, the first time the Avs have had two players with eight or goals in the playoffs since 2002 when Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg each had nine.
Kadri scored his fifth game-winning goal of the postseason, the second-most by an Avalanche/ Nordiques player in a playoff year (Joe Sakic, 6, 1996).
Cale Makar tallied an assist and how has 14 points (3g/11a) in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which ranks fifth in franchise history in points by a defenseman in a single playoff year and is tied for the second-most points by a rookie defenseman in a playoff year in NHL history.
Mikko Rantanen tallied two points (1g/1a) to extend his point streak to eight games. He has collected 13 points (5g/8a) over that span.
Ryan Graves finished with a postseason career-best six blocked shots and now has a team-leading 30 blocked shots this postseason.
Logan O'Connor registered his first career playoff point.