Heika’s Take: Blackwell plays hero in OT as Stars complete rally to even series

In a lot of ways, Colin Blackwell is a microcosm of the Stars.

The veteran forward has a ton of patience, a fair amount of skill, and a huge heart. So when he came up with the game-winning goal in overtime on Monday to even Dallas’ best-of-seven series with Colorado at 1-1, the entire bench could understand his excitement.

"Colin is one of those guys, especially me being out, I get to see how hard he works every day,” said teammate Tyler Seguin, who spent most of the season recovering from hip surgery. “I get to see him, how he is in the gym. There's so many things that I get to see with these guys that are in and out of the lineup. You're just proud of a guy like him and what he did.”

The 32-year-old Harvard grad had one previous playoff goal before Monday – in May 2022 with Toronto – and served as a healthy scratch for a fair chunk of this season. He was, in fact, a healthy scratch in Game 1 on Saturday, so he had a real hunger going into Game 2. And while listed at 5-8, 190 pounds, he is one of the faster skaters on the Stars and one of the hardest working forwards. So it wasn’t a tough decision to insert him in the lineup, coach Pete DeBoer said.

“He was a consideration for Game 1,” DeBoer said of how tough it is to sit players in the postseason. “He’s had a great year for us. He didn’t go in Game 1. I talked to him when we didn’t play him in game one, said be ready, you’re not going to be out long. He’s one of those energy guys. I thought after losing Game 1 we needed a little shot of energy. He’s a competitive player and I thought he was effective all night. But it’s also great to see a guy like that get a goal. Out Game 1, work with the black aces, and then come in and play a part in playoff hockey.”

And bottom line, the Stars needed all of that. They needed Blackwell and linemates Sam Steel and Oskar Bäck to turn in another great performance that allowed DeBoer to balance his line rotation and hit Colorado with wave after wave in the third period and overtime. They needed Evgenii Dadonov to come up with his eighth playoff goal in a Stars’ uniform to push the game to overtime. They needed Seguin to score on the power play after sitting out 58 games following hip surgery. They needed Jake Oettinger to bounce back from some shaky moments to slam the door and a patchwork defense to get 24-plus minutes from four different blueliners.

They needed it, and they got it, and that makes them feel a whole lot better on Tuesday morning.

Dallas had lost the first game in a playoff series for the seventh straight time under DeBoer on Saturday, and definitely didn’t want to go down 2-0 to a Colorado team that has been flying high and might get captain Gabriel Landeskog back in the coming days. They had not won a game since early April (0-6-2), so they needed to feel that positive energy once again.

It was an emotional night at American Airlines Center, where fans were standing throughout overtime, despite a late puck drop and the specter of the work alarm ringing very early.

"Just the emotions that come with that game,” Seguin said when asked what it meant to him after his rehab. “Playing in front of our fans, looking up and not seeing anyone sitting down, that's why the months of being out are all worth it. Just being able to get back and being part of this group and part of this journey together. The highs and lows and what it feels like to win a game like that…now get to Colorado and try to steal the first one."

Dallas played a pretty solid game, despite losing 5-1 on Saturday, so there was a quiet confidence about the team. So when Nathan MacKinnon scored eight minutes in, there was no panic. Seguin scored a power play goal late in the first period to tie things up, and then the two sides exchanged goals to make it 2-2 five minutes into the second period.

Dallas had a great chance late in the second when it got back-to-back power plays, but it squandered both and didn’t look good in the process. That failure came back to haunt them when Logan O’Connor tallied a hard-working goal in the final minute and headed into the third period with a 3-2 lead and a chance to put a chokehold on the series before heading back to Denver for Games 3 and 4.

Dallas bounced back from an 0-2 deficit last season against Vegas, but the historic odds give you about a 16 percent chance of doing that on a regular basis, so DeBoer was not looking to challenge that arithmetic.

“Listen, our season is on the line, let’s be honest,” DeBoer said of the attitude coming out of the second intermission. “If we lose the first two games here – we got away with it last year against Vegas, but you’re probably not going to do that again this year. So, we knew our season was on the line.”

As a result, the Stars played their best hockey in several weeks. Dallas controlled a good deal of play in the third period, and Dadonov was able to fight hard to push a puck past Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood 10 minutes into the third period. That leveled the playing field and both teams gave a great account of themselves in a thrilling ending to the game. Skaters created some great scoring chances, goalies came up with big saves, and players on each side turned up the physicality. Each team finished with 45 hits in the game, which was a huge boost for a Stars team that ranked 31st in the regular season with 15.1 hits per game.

Blackwell tied for the team lead with five hits and also put five shots on goal as he was a noticeable figure the whole night. On the game-winning goal, he created a shot on net, then hustled to get to his own rebound, lifting it in at the 17:46 mark of overtime.

“I’ve always felt that my game is kind of built for playoffs and stuff along those lines,” Blackwell said. “I love rising to the occasion and playing in moments like this. I thought it was awesome. The boys put the work boots on to push it to overtime and then we were really chugging along there. Every line was playing well. Jakey stood on his head, and he really kept us in that game.”

They needed all of that, and they especially needed a player like Blackwell. But they’ve known that all season.

“I can’t say enough,” captain Jamie Benn said of the work the depth forwards have done all year. “They’ve been playing some great hockey for a while. You could argue [the fourth line] was our best line through the bit of the struggle that we had. They played another great game and stepped up.”

This story was not subject to the approval of the National Hockey League or Dallas Stars Hockey Club.

Mike Heika is a Senior Staff Writer for DallasStars.com and has covered the Stars since 1994. Follow him on X @MikeHeika.