3 Keys: Stars vs. Avalanche, Game 5 of Western Second Round

No. 3 Stars vs. No. 2 Avalanche
9:45 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVAS, SN
Dallas leads best of 7 series, 3-1

The Colorado Avalanche did not announce who will be their starting goalie when they try to avoid elimination against the Dallas Stars in Game 5 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Monday.
Pavel Francouz was pulled after allowing five goals on 26 shots in Colorado's 5-4 loss in Game 4 on Sunday. He was replaced by Michael Hutchinson, who made the save on the three shots he faced in 9:21.
"He's got to be better, for sure," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Sunday of Francouz. "[The Stars are] making it hard on him, on the power plays especially, but we've seen [Francouz] be way better."
Francouz has started every game for the Avalanche since goalie Philipp Grubauer was ruled out indefinitely with an injury sustained in Game 1. As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, a team is not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.
Goalie Anton Khudobin will start for the Stars, who will look to advance to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2008. The Stars/Minnesota North Stars are 10-1 winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoffs series after taking a 3-1 series lead.
Teams with a 3-1 lead are 284-29 (90.7 percent) winning a best-of-7 NHL playoff series, including 6-0 in the first round this season.
Here are 3 keys for Game 5:

1. Defenseman scoring

Stars defensemen have been active and productive, combining for 36 points (nine goals, 27 assists) in the postseason.
"A lot of players are feeling really good about their game right now, and that's why we're such a confident group," defenseman John Klingberg said after he had a goal and an assist in Game 4. "It's something that we were talking about to start of camp in August, we wanted the [defensemen] to be more involved, get more [offensive]-zone time, and that's one of the keys to why you're seeing more offense. When we get a good start like this, we know they are going to play some risk in their game."

2. Improving in front of the net

The Avalanche have allowed 19 goals in four games and said they're not helping their goalies enough.
"[Francouz is] a great goalie, and [Hutchinson] is a proven NHL goalie as well, so it's not on them," Colorado forward Nathan MacKinnon said. "It's on us to give them easy saves, easy looks. We're letting their big bodies stand in front of the net and tip pucks unharmed right now. We can win more battles, be more mean in our crease, help those guys out."

3. Finding power

The Stars won the special-teams battle in Game 4, scoring three power-play goals on six opportunities. They've scored 11 goals on 44 chances (25.0 percent) this postseason.
"[We're] moving the puck around quick and trying to attack the goal," Dallas forward Jamie Benn said. "[Defenseman Miro Heiskanen's] unit, they do a great job of moving the puck around, getting their shots. We try to do the same thing and obviously try to be the difference in the hockey game."

Stars projected lineup

Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Joe Pavelski -- Denis Gurianov
Jason Dickinson -- Roope Hintz -- Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera -- Taylor Fedun
Anton Khudobin
Jake Oettinger
Scratched: Nick Caamano, Ty Dellandrea, Justin Dowling, Joel Kiviranta, Jason Robertson, Gavin Bayreuther, Joel Hanley, Thomas Harley, Landon Bow
Unfit to play: Stephen Johns, Ben Bishop

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andre Burakovsky -- Nazem Kadri -- Valeri Nichushkin
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Vladislav Namestnikov
Matt Nieto -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Logan O'Connor
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Ian Cole
Nikita Zadorov -- Kevin Connauton
Pavel Francouz
Michael Hutchinson
Scratched:Mark Barberio, Shane Bowers, Bowen Byram, Sheldon Dries, Anton Lindholm, Logan O'Connor, Conor Timmins, T.J. Tynan
Unfit to play: Philipp Grubauer, Erik Johnson, Matt Calvert, Joonas Donskoi