Colorado
Dallas Stars haunted by Colorado ghosts, blow lead vs. Avs just like in the regular season
Ahead of both the first round against Vegas and second round against Colorado, Stars coach Pete DeBoer said the regular-season series with each team gave little indication of how the playoffs would play out.
He was right when it came to the Vegas series, as the Stars were winless against the Golden Knights in their three regular-season meetings but came out on top in the seven-game series to advance to the second round.
But after Game 1 against Colorado, the same troubles that the Avalanche posed in the regular season came back to haunt the Stars.
The Stars took a 3-0 lead in the first period of Tuesday’s game before the Avalanche scored four straight goals to win in overtime and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
“Tough lesson to learn in Game 1 but glad we’re not learning it in Game 6 or 7 in an elimination game,” DeBoer said. “We’ve gotta be smarter than that. They’ve got that quick-strike ability that you’ve gotta be mentally sharp for 60 minutes in order to beat them.”
However, it wasn’t the first time Dallas had been taught that lesson. The Stars have blown an early lead to Colorado in all five of their meetings this season.
In their first matchup back in November, the Stars led 3-0 early in the second period before the Avalanche scored six consecutive goals to win 6-3.
In their second meeting in January, Dallas blew a two-goal lead with 10 minutes remaining, and Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner for Colorado in overtime.
In their third matchup in February, Logan Stankoven scored a minute into the game, but that lead held for just 1:08 before Colorado tied it and ultimately went on to win 5-1.
In their final meeting against Colorado in April — their only win against the Avalanche all year — the Stars saw a 5-2 lead narrow to 5-4 with under 10 minutes remaining. Wyatt Johnston and Tyler Seguin had to find two late goals to put the game out of reach.
On Tuesday, it was the same story.
“We shouldn’t have gotten to overtime,” Stars forward Matt Duchene said. “We’re up 3-0. I don’t think we stayed on our toes enough in the second. We kind of took our foot off the gas a little bit. They started to come at us with a couple of penalties, and their power play was obviously lethal. … We had that game under control, and we let it slip away.”
Dallas’ three-goal first period came as a surprise, even to those in its locker room. The Stars were less than 48 hours removed from a grueling Game 7 against Vegas. Colorado was well-rested after a week off.
The Stars managed to carry that Game 7 momentum into the first period before it stalled. Meanwhile, Colorado started rusty but eventually settled into its game and took over.
“That’s a high-octane team over there. It was a very different style of game,” Duchene said. “I think we can probably do a better job throughout the 60 minutes in forcing our game and imposing our game on them with the puck. We got away from it a bit in the second and kind of tide turned there.”
In the second period and early in the third is where Colorado’s playmakers turned the game. Dallas took two penalties early in the second, and the Avalanche’s dominant power play connected on both.
Top-line forward Valeri Nichushkin struck first while Norris Trophy finalist Cale Makar added a power-play goal next. Then, just 39 seconds into the third period, MacKinnon scored off a rebound to tie the game.
Meanwhile, the Stars didn’t get a goal from either their typical top three forwards (Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz and Joe Pavelski) or their top defensive pairing (Miro Heiskanen and Thomas Harley). All three goals came from their third forward line and third defensive pairing.
DeBoer acknowledged postgame that needs to change.
“At the end of the night, when you look at the score sheet, their big guys all kind of delivered and are all over the score sheet, and I thought a couple of our guys were, but some of our scoring has to step up,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for a series plus a game now for some of that.”
Dallas had the more complete overtime, but it wasn’t enough to put the puck in the net. One bounce ended up on Miles Wood’s stick, and it just took one move around Jake Oettinger to seal the win.
But Dallas never should’ve been in that position to begin with.
Each series comes with a learning curve, but the Stars have had plenty of exposure to the Avalanche to know that no lead is safe against them.
They’ll need another hot start on Thursday, but this time they’ll have to find a way to keep that distance. If they can’t, their season will be on the line again heading on another road trip where their luck could soon run out.
Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
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Three-quarters of Colorado residents said they were worried about whether they would be able to afford to continue living in the state, according to a poll conducted this spring.
Last year, about 70% of people responding to the Colorado Health Foundation’s annual Pulse poll said they weren’t sure living here would remain financially feasible. That rose to 76% this year.
“That majority concern was cutting across regions, across income levels, across racial and ethnic groups,” said Lucia Del Puppo, senior vice president at FM3 Research, which works with Democrats.
The poll found that the majority of those sampled said they had already cut back on entertainment spending and charitable giving, with smaller shares saying they’d skipped meals, delayed medical or dental care, or paid a utility bill late.
Only about one in four people said they hadn’t changed their spending or dealt with a financial setback in the last year, with older people and Republicans reporting less budget strain.
“It’s significant and it affects the overall economy” when people reduce their discretionary spending, said Lori Weigel, principal of New Bridge Strategy, which works with Republicans.
The responses suggested a significant minority expected further financial strains in the coming year:
- About two in five worried they or a family member would lose health insurance
- Three in 10 worried about affording enough food
- One-third thought they might lose their housing because they couldn’t afford their mortgage or rent
Notably, more than half of renters were worried about whether they could continue to afford their housing, Weigel said. One-third said they’d avoided asking their landlords to fix problems to avoid rent increases, and one-quarter said they’d taken on high-interest debt, such as payday loans or credit card balances, to deal with housing costs, she said.
Lower-income people and those who identified as Black, Hispanic or Native American reported greater financial struggles than other groups.
Even people who haven’t had to cut back are worried about affordability. When asked to rate the seriousness of a list of potential problems, 85% said both the general cost of living and the cost of housing were either “very serious” or “extremely serious.” Additionally, 82% said the cost of health care was a very serious or extremely serious problem.
Younger people were particularly worried about housing costs, with 94% of millennials and 90% of Generation Z members describing the problem as very or extremely serious.
At the same time, when respondents got the chance to name the most important issue facing the state, the largest share — 28% — chose government and politics. The cost of living and inflation came close behind, with 25% deeming it the top issue.
Just one year ago, only 13% of people considered cost of living and inflation their top concern, Del Puppo said.
“It has jumped really since 2025,” she said.
The two may be related, as 72% of respondents said they weren’t satisfied with the government’s response to economic issues. The only question where a slight majority said they were satisfied with the state government’s performance was making the state “safe and welcoming” to everyone, Del Puppo said.
The poll asked more than 2,200 people about their personal finances, experiences with health care and perceptions of the state between March and April, then weighted their results to represent Colorado’s demographics.
As usual, both a Democratic and a Republican firm ran the poll, to reduce the risk of bias.
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