Avalanche get past Stars in Game 5, stay alive in West 2nd Round

DALLAS -- Cale Makar scored two goals, and the Colorado Avalanche avoided elimination by defeating the Dallas Stars 5-3 in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at American Airlines Center on Wednesday.

Dallas leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be at Colorado on Friday.

“Do-or-die games from here on out in this series,” Makar said. “You’re playing desperate hockey now. Everybody’s got to play on the edge. You’ve got to fight for every single chance you’re getting now [with] it being an elimination game.”

Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche, who are the No. 3 seed from the Central Division. Alexandar Georgiev made 23 saves.

“I feel during the regular season and even this playoff we’ve been finding good ways to come back and win games when we’re down in the game,” Georgiev said. “I feel confident in our group. You’ve got to take every game one shift at a time. If we play a full 60, it doesn’t matter if they score first or if we do as long as we play from the start to the end.”

Joe Pavelski had a goal and an assist, and Jason Robertson had two assists for the Stars, who are the No. 1 seed from the Central. Jake Oettinger made 22 saves.

“[Oettinger]'s probably the mentally toughest guy in this locker room. I know it's the hardest job in hockey to be a goalie,” Robertson said. “He takes a lot of pride in his work. He's very mentally tough. He's going to flush it away and get ready for next game."

Pavelski gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 9:03 of the first period. He scored on a one-timer from in front off a pass by Matt Duchene, who intercepted a clearing attempt by Colorado defenseman Josh Manson at the side of the net.

Lehkonen tied it 1-1 on the power play with one second remaining in the period, scoring on a wrist shot from the high slot off a pass from MacKinnon.

“We knew we were going to get their best game of the series and we did,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “Their big guys were all on the score sheet tonight, which you probably anticipated would happen. We still are right there in that game. I liked our second period.

“A couple things happened that are really self-inflicted this time of year. It’s really hard to win. One’s a goal at the end of the [first] period. … You’ve got to get out of the period there. Their power play goes 2-for-2 (through two periods). I know we had a penalty there at the end, but that was kind of a moot point. So, tough to win when those type of things aren’t in your favor.”

Miro Heiskanen gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 11:39 of the second period with a power-play goal from the bottom of the left face-off circle after Robertson sent him a pass across the bottom of the slot on a 2-on-0.

Makar tied it 2-2 on a power play at 17:24 when his point shot got through traffic.

“I thought we were more connected tonight as a group of five working at the same time instead of one or two guys working and a couple of guys watching,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “[Makar] was outstanding. Creating scoring chances not just for his linemates, but for himself, beating guys 1-on-1.”

Casey Mittelstadt put Colorado ahead 3-2 at 1:12 of the third period when his shot from along the goal line on the right side banked in off of Oettinger’s left skate. The goal allowed the Avalanche to play with a lead for the first time in the series, with their Game 1 win coming in overtime.

“I don’t think we’ve had a lead for one second in this series. Finally got one,” MacKinnon said. “Obviously, we wanted one in the first, but that’s a tough goal for them to give up with less than one second left. It was big for us. Tied it up again. Finally got a lead. It was nice to get the lead for once.”

Makar scored his second of the game to extend the lead to 4-2 at 4:28 when his shot from the right circle deflected off the stick of Stars defenseman Thomas Harley and went through Oettinger’s five-hole.

Logan Stankoven cut it to 4-3 at 5:44 from the high slot when he deflected Esa Lindell’s shot from the blue line.

MacKinnon made it 5-3 at 16:50 on a shot from the high slot.

“We’re trying to close it out so we can move on, however we get it done,” Pavelski said. “It’s a group that’s going to compete. However it happens, we want to get there and we want to keep advancing. It would’ve been nice, absolutely. But we didn’t get it done. So now we have to go regroup a little bit, look at a few things and go try to win a game.”

NOTES: Colorado forward Yakov Trenin left the game 10:02 into the first period with an upper-body injury. “He wasn't good enough to come back in the game,” Bednar said. “I don't know if it's anything serious.” … Pavelski scored his 74th Stanley Cup Playoff goal, the most among active players. He also passed Dino Ciccarelli (73) for the second-most playoff goals before winning the Stanley Cup in NHL history (Brett Hull, 77). … Heiskanen scored the 15th playoff goal of his career, tying Sergei Zubov and Craig Hartsburg for the most by a defenseman in Stars/Minnesota North Stars history.