On Monday night the Colorado Avalanche were in Dallas to face the Stars who are in first place in the Central Division. The Avs are on the heels of Dallas and were in need of a win on Monday night to gain some ground on the division leading Stars.
The Stars came out fast, outshooting the Avs 7-3 before Colorado’s first power play with a little over 10 minutes left in the first period. With only 33 seconds left in their power play, Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen slid the puck to defencemen Cale Makar who scored the one-time goal giving Colorado the early lead.
Makar’s goal made him the fastest defencemen in NHL history to reach 200 points in just 195 games. What makes Makar’s feat even more impressive is that he’s only 24 years old after celebrating his 24th on October 30th.
The Stars scored less than five and half minutes into the second period on a questionable goal that seemed to only trickle past the goal line after Dallas’ left winger
Jason Roberts was blocked into Colorado goalie Alexandar Gerogiev, prying the goal loose.
In the third period Colorado’s center, Evan Rodrigues spun around after receiving a pass in front of the net shot the puck which was blocked off the pads of Stars goalie Jake Oettinger right into the waiting stick of Alex Newhook who chipped the puck in for Colorado’s second goal and the lead.
With less than a minute and a half left to play in regulation, the Stars pulled goalie Oettinger. The Stars kept the puck alive in the Avalanche zone for almost a minute with the Avs only able to clear it once. With less than thirty left in regulation Jason Roberson scored again to tie up the game and send it into overtime.
Heading into overtime the Avs managed to outshoot the Stars in regulation 32-23. The Colorado Avs outshot the Stars 4-1 in overtime but both teams goalies managed to keep the pucks out of the net, forcing a shootout.
however, Rantanen followed up in the second round with a flick of the wrist shot to take the lead. Gerogiev, blocked Robertson’s attempt, ending the game with the Avs winning 3-2.
The Avalanche are at home on Wednesday night to host the Vancouver Canucks before heading to Nashville on Friday night to face the Predators.
In other sports Denver Nuggets beat the Dallas Mavericks on the road on Sunday with out key play- ers, Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray. Denver’s point-guard Nah’Shon ‘Bones’ Hyland lead all Nuggets with 29 (a career high) and Michael Porter Jr. ending the night with 14 points. Denver’s center DeAndre Jordon had 17 rebounds and added 8 points to Denver’s 98-97 win over the Mavericks.
This week the Nuggets are at home to host the Detroit Pistons (game not played by the time of this writing) on Tuesday night and are on the road Wednesday to face the Oklahoma City Thunder and the L.A. Clippers on Friday night in L.A.
