Full coverage: Dallas Stars take down Colorado Avalanche with OT winner in Game 2
Stars owner confirms team cut ties with employees who profited booking youth tournaments
It’s a new series between Dallas and Colorado.
Despite a lopsided loss to the Avalanche on Saturday, the Dallas Stars evened the series on home ice Monday night with a 4-3 victory. Colin Blackwell scored the game-winner for the Stars with 2:14 remaining in the first overtime period.
Dallas trailed 3-2 entering the third period, but Evgenii Dadonov scored the game-tying goal with 9:47 remaining in regulation. The Stars survived a Colorado power play in the final minutes of regulation and the opening minute of overtime, and Blackwell was able to give the Stars their first win of the playoffs and snap their eight-game losing streak.
The series is now tied 1-1 as it heads to Denver for Game 3 on Wednesday night.
Here are five thoughts from the Stars’ win:
The Stars were in some trouble.
Through two games of this series, Dallas has led for just 1:02 and entered the third period of Monday’s game in a deficit.
But after Jamie Benn, Wyatt Johnston and Dadonov came together to force overtime, Blackwell was the hero in OT.
Just a game after he was a healthy scratch, Blackwell picked up a loose puck and went top shelf for the win.
Heading to Ball Arena down 0-2 could’ve been detrimental for the Stars. Colorado has a 26-12-3 record in its arena this year. The Avalanche also are on the verge of returning captain Gabriel Landeskog for the first time since June 2022.
His return could’ve given Colorado the energy to sweep the series. But Monday’s win means that no matter what happens in Denver, the series will return to Dallas.
During last year’s playoff run, Dallas’ fourth line was responsible for some of its most memorable plays, including Radek Faksa’s Game 7 winner in the Vegas series.
While most of the players on that line are new this season, they provided a similar spark Monday night.
Blackwell drew into the lineup for Mavrik Bourque and skated alongside Oskar Bäck and Sam Steel. The fourth line combined for four shots on goal, 10 hits in regulation, plus the second-period score with Steel and Bäck assisting on Thomas Harley’s goal to give Dallas its first lead of the series.
The line then combined for Blackwell’s game winner in OT.
Dallas also got a critical goal from its third line. Dadonov — who has played on every line this season, but spent most of his time in the bottom six — was demoted from the top line to the third line mid-game Monday. He cleaned up a loose puck off a shot by Johnston with 9:47 left in regulation to tie it 3-3.
While Dallas needs more contributions from its top scorers, its depth could be an advantage deeper in this series.
Most nights, the Stars wouldn’t complain all that much after going 1 for 4 on the power play.
Dallas opened its scoring on the man advantage with under a minute left in the first period. Tyler Seguin scored for the Stars to tie the game entering the first intermission.
But from there, Dallas’ power play went cold at a time when it was most needed.
Tied 2-2, the Stars spent six of the last 10 minutes of the second period on the power play. Interference calls on Joel Kiviranta and Josh Manson and a tripping call on Logan O’Connor swung the momentum in the Stars’ direction.
But even with seven seconds of 5-on-3 and plenty of 5-on-4 time, the Stars were unable to score. Instead, O’Connor came down ice and scored a stunning backhanded goal in transition with 33 seconds left in the period to shift the momentum back in Colorado’s direction.
Dallas took just two penalties in the contest and held Colorado to 1 for 3 on the power play, but Nathan MacKinnon scored on the Avalanche’s first attempt.
In the six-game series between Colorado and Dallas last year, the Avalanche’s top player Nathan MacKinnon had just two goals and five points.
By three and a half periods of this year’s series, he had already surpassed his goal total with three, and he has recorded four assists.
The reigning Hart Trophy winner and candidate to repeat has scored power-play goals in both games for the Avalanche, scoring Colorado’s first goal of the night Monday.
Last year, Dallas had lockdown defensemen Miro Heiskanen and Chris Tanev to help contain him. But with Heiskanen injured and Tanev off in Toronto, the Stars need to find a new way to contain Colorado’s superstar — or return Heiskanen to the lineup fast.
Tyler Seguin only played his third game back from hip surgery Monday night, but showed his return was a crucial one for Dallas.
With less than a minute left in the first period, Seguin scored a power-play goal to tie the score 1-1.
It was his first goal since Nov. 29, with his last also coming against Colorado.
Stars coach Pete DeBoer said he expected it to take a few games for Seguin’s conditioning to get back to where it was, but he delivered a much-needed play for the Stars at a critical time.
Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
How much do you earn? And how far does that paycheck really go?
In Dallas, a $100,000 salary is a figure that’s more than double the area’s individual median income, but nevertheless a useful benchmark for the region’s burgeoning business community. However — once taxes and the local cost of living is factored in — it has the effective purchasing power of around $80,000 according to a new financial report.
Consumer-focused fintech site SmartAsset worked the numbers on the country’s 69 largest cities, determining the “estimated true value of $100,000 in annual income” in each location by measuring federal, state and local taxes as well as local cost of living data, including on housing, groceries and utilities.
It used its own proprietary figures, as well as information from the Council for Community and Economic Research.
Related
Despite recent research suggesting North Texas has lately been losing some of its famous economic advantage — a major factor behind the region’s explosive growth — Dallas actually fared relatively well in SmartAsset’s analysis. Of the 69 cities, Dallas’ effective purchasing power, of $80,103 on the $100,000 salary, tied with Nashville to rank 22nd highest.
Like many cities in the report, Dallas also actually saw a year-over-year effective salary bump, likely because of slightly lower effective tax rates and living costs that have hewed closer to the national average. In 2024, the value of a $100,000 salary in Dallas came out to $77,197.
Other large Texas cities fared even better than Dallas. El Paso, where SmartAsset calculated the effective value of the $100,000 salary at nearly $90,300, ranked third highest overall.
San Antonio, where the effective value was around $86,400, ranked eighth. Houston, where the figure was around $84,800, ranked 10th, and Austin, where the figure was $82,400, ranked 17th.
Oklahoma City topped SmartAsset’s value ranking, with an effective salary of around $91,900, and Manhattan, which the website considered as its own city, came in with the lowest value, at around $29,400.
Dallas’ relatively strong effective value score won’t necessarily translate to the good life: Another financial report, published in November by the website Upgraded Points, determined that even a single adult with no kids needs a pre-tax salary of at least $107,000 to live “comfortably” in the Metroplex.
Cardi B, one of hip-hop’s most outsize personalities — and one of its most reliable hitmakers — is coming to Dallas.
The New York City-born rapper broke through in 2017 with the hit single “Bodak Yellow,” launching a chart-topping run that soon included “I Like It” and the blockbuster hit “WAP.” Her Grammy-winning debut album, Invasion of Privacy, cemented her as a defining voice in contemporary rap, blending brash humor, confessional storytelling and club-ready production.
The 33-year-old’s success helped boost the profile of women in a genre long dominated by men, encouraging record labels to sign more female rappers. She has frequently teamed up with rising female artists, including GloRilla, FendiDa Rappa and “WAP” collaborator Megan Thee Stallion.
Cardi’s stop at American Airlines Center is part of the arena run supporting her second studio album, 2025’s Am I the Drama? Recent shows in the “Little Miss Drama Tour” have leaned into spectacle, with elaborate staging, surprise guest appearances and a set list that spans her entire career.
Fans can expect a high-energy performance built around booming trap beats, pop hooks and Cardi’s signature unfiltered banter — the same mix that has helped her sell out dates across the tour and turn concerts into party-like events.
DETAILS: March 7 at 7:30 p.m. at American Airlines Center in Dallas. Tickets start at $334.10, but some verified resale tickets are cheaper. ticketmaster.com.
Pop legend Diana Ross performs March 7 at the WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma.
Sarah Hepola
OTHER CONCERTS
Bluesy psychedelic rock band All Them Witches performs March 7 at House of Blues Dallas.
Travis Pinson
ALL THEM WITCHES March 7 at 8 p.m. at House of Blues Dallas. ticketmaster.com.
DIANA ROSS March 7 at 8 p.m. at WinStar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. winstar.com.
RICH BRIAN March 7 at 8 p.m. at The Bomb Factory in Deep Ellum. axs.com.
TRACE ADKINS March 7 at 10 p.m. at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth. billybobstexas.com.
AFROJACK March 8 at 3 p.m. at It’ll Do Club in Deep Ellum. eventbrite.com.
LITHE March 8 at 8 p.m. at House of Blues Dallas. ticketmaster.com.
CONAN GRAY March 10 at 8 p.m. at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. ticketmaster.com.
MATISYAHU March 10 at 8 p.m. at the Granada Theater in Dallas. prekindle.com.
OUR LADY PEACE, WITH THE VERVE PIPE March 12 at 8 p.m. at Tannahill’s Tavern and Music Hall in Fort Worth. ticketmaster.com.
PAUL WALL March 12 at 9 p.m. and March 13 at 10 p.m. at Billy Bob’s Texas in Fort Worth. billybobstexas.com.
Exclusive: DeepSeek withholds latest AI model from US chipmakers including Nvidia, sources say
Mother and daughter injured in Taunton house explosion
Setting sail on iceboats across a frozen lake in Wisconsin
AM showers Sunday in Maryland
Florida man rescued after being stuck in shoulder-deep mud for days
Massachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
10 acres charred, 5 injured in Thornton grass fire, evacuation orders lifted
2026 OSAA Oregon Wrestling State Championship Results And Brackets – FloWrestling