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.

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