The Colorado Avalanche's Stanley Cup hopes ended in a 2-1 double overtime loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday night. They kept the momentum from their Game 5 win into Game 6 but it wasn't enough to force a Game 7 and continue on in the postseason.
“I mean, we had some looks, I mean Lehky (Artturi Lehkonen) had that one in the crease. He had a couple in the slot. You know, we had plenty of looks in the third to score two it's just one of those games," Nathan MacKinnon said after the loss. "But yeah, they did an awesome job. They're a great team. It’ll be a tough out you know whoever they play next. You know, they're they're a great team.”
Mikko Rantanen scored on the power play at 14:12 in the second period from a Jonathan Drouin pass. Cale Makar got the secondary assist — his 80th career playoff point. He became the fifth-fastest defenseman to achieve this feat, in 72 games.
Makar joined the list of Hall of Famers before him including Bobby Orr (66 games), Paul Coffey (67 games), Brian Leetch (70 games), and Al MacInnis (71 games). It's also the 25-year-old superstar's third 10-plus point postseason to tie MacKinnon and Rantanen for the third most in franchise history.
Related: Mikko Rantanen scores 1st for Avs in Game 6: Coach Bednar said he 'has been getting better as the series has gone on'
The Avalanche held the lead until Stars forward Jamie Benn slid one past Alexandar Georgiev less than five minutes into the third period to tie the game. The teams went into an extra frame, which ended scoreless and drawing another overtime.
"Well, it was tiring. There's no question. I mean, you can see our energy level drop as the periods went on. But our guys played hard. They played hard every shift. They defended hard," head coach Jared Bednar said. "We had some stretches where we spent a bunch of time in our own zone. We were sacrificing, doing whatever we could to keep the puck out of the net. Lots of blocks, limited scoring chances or high-danger chances for the most part. They played hard, both sides did I think. It's just … you're playing a good team, a deep team and it's going back and forth and just unable to get it done tonight."
The Avalanche head coach had said after other losses in the series that it wasn't for lack of effort and he was proud of what his team accomplished.
"Yeah, I don’t think it was an issue. We’re playing a very good team that’s very stingy. Whoever’s going to play them next, it’s hard to score goals, hard to get in those areas. They have some big defensemen. It’s a very good team on the other side. I’ll give them credit," Drouin said.
Georgiev ended up making 36 saves and gave the Avalanche a fighting chance in overtime when they were not producing.
Matt Duchene, who was drafted third overall in 2009 by the Avalanche, scored the game-winning goal at 11:42 in the second overtime.
There are a lot of question marks and unknowns, including the return of Gabriel Landeskog and several unrestricted free agents, that will keep the front office busy in the offseason.
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