In just his first playoff game as a Dallas Star, Colin Blackwell delivered in the biggest way possible. He scored at the 17:46 minute mark of overtime, helping the Stars tie the series between them and the Colorado Avalanche.
Blackwell, a healthy scratch in Game 1, scored the overtime winner Monday night to give Dallas a thrilling 4-3 victory over the Avalanche. After his initial shot was blocked, Blackwell beat two defenders to his own rebound and roofed the puck over Colorado goalie Mackenzie Blackwood with 2:14 left in OT.
“It was a gratuitous bounce and I’ll take that any day of the week,” Blackwell said postgame.
The back-and-forth battle saw Nathan MacKinnon open the scoring for Colorado (his third of the playoffs), while Tyler Seguin responded with a power-play goal late in the first. Both teams traded goals early in the second, with Logan O’Connor’s highlight-reel backhander giving the Avs a 3-2 lead. Evgenii Dadonov tied it midway through the third during a scramble in front of the net.
Blackwell won it in overtime. “I’ve always felt my game’s kind of built for the playoffs,” he said.
The win snapped an eight-game playoff losing streak for the Stars, who are still without Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson. They needed this win on home ice, avoiding the Avs going home with the series in hand. The win sets the stage for a pivotal Game 3 in Denver on Wednesday.
Colorado fans will be watching closely for the possible return of captain Gabriel Landeskog, who was activated and took warmups but was not inserted into the lineup in Game 2.
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