Game Six Preview: Avalanche try to stay alive at home

Colorado went into Dallas down 3-1 in the series and played arguably their best game to extend their season one more night. Now they have to bring that same energy in front of their home crowd to force a Game Seven.

They did it with offense from their top players, led by Cale Makar's two-goal game and Nathan MacKinnon's dominant skating all over the ice. Where those two go, this team follows, and they will absolutely have to show up again for this not to be the end of the line.

It’s do-or-die time once again in Denver! Bring it on, Dallas Stars.

Colorado Avalanche

No Val, no problem, apparently, as the power play got going despite missing its primary net-front presence and leading goal scorer. They did it with traffic in front and a better effort from Makar getting his shots through attempted blocks. One could argue (and we did on the MHH Lab Podcast) that the power play would benefit from a little more creativity, but if the simple play is going to work, it might as well work.

Colorado also played a much better defensive game, with an under-the-weather Devon Toews making a huge difference on the blue line, in part through his play and in part by relegating Sean Walker to a lesser role he’s more suited to and Caleb Jones back to the press box. Walker and Jack Johnson as a pair are still somewhat shaky (mostly because JJ is struggling to keep up with Dallas’ footspeed), but they’re better than Johnson-Jones by miles.

And Alexandar Georgiev was exactly what he needed to be: better than Jake Oettinger. That will absolutely have to be true again tonight. On a more sour note, Yakov Trenin picked up an upper-body injury that will keep him out today, meaning Chris Wagner will likely jump in on the fourth line. He was good when he played earlier this postseason, but Trenin is a big loss for the bottom six and penalty kill.

Projected Lines

Jonathan Drouin (27) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Artturi Lehkonen (62) - Casey Mittelstadt (37) - Zach Parise (9)
Miles Wood (28) - Ross Colton (20) - Joel Kiviranta (94)
Andrew Cogliano (11) - Chris Wagner (14) - Brandon Duhaime (12)

Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)
Sam Girard (49) - Josh Manson (42)
Jack Johnson (3) - Sean Walker (26)

Alexandar Georgiev (40)

Dallas Stars

The pressure always mounts on the team trying to close out a series, and Dallas may have felt the effects of that in front of its fans on Wednesday. They played well in what was a truly close game through forty minutes but cracked in the third as Colorado was pushing hard.

Was that Oettinger finally showing why people were worried about his mental fortitude coming into the playoffs? Or is it just Colorado playing at its best for the first time in a few games? We’ll find out the answer if Otter struggles early in this game.

The Stars also missed Roope Hintz, their number-one center and a crucial piece of both special teams' units. Without him, they completely rearranged their lines, and while they were still effective for stretches of the game, it was obvious they were missing a key cog. He is out again for Game Six.

Chris Tanev was able to play through his injury from Game Three and had to miss a couple of shifts in the first period after getting a tooth pushed up into his gums in a collision with MacKinnon. He and the rest of the defense couldn’t contain the Avalanche as well as they had in previous games - was that due to injury? Or fatigue from skating essentially five D all playoffs? Either way, for Dallas to close this series out the defense will have to find a way to push through what ails them.

Dallas Stars Projected Lines

Jason Robertson (21) — Tyler Seguin (91) — Logan Stankoven (11)
Jamie Benn (16) — Wyatt Johnston (53) — Joe Pavelski (16)
Mason Marchment (27) — Matt Duchene (95) — Evgenii Dadonov (63)
Craig Smith (15) — Radek Faksa (18) — Sam Steel (18)

Thomas Harley (55) - Miro Heiskanen (4)
Esa Lindell (23) - Chris Tanev (3)
Ryan Suter (20) - Nils Lundkvist (5)

Jake Oettinger (29)

Goaltenders

No Changes.