Seguin & Stankoven Lead Stars to 4-1 Win Over Avalanche in Game 3

The Stars opened the scoring for the third straight game with Stankoven’s first-career playoff goal after some hard work along the boards. It was the first sustained pressure for Pete DeBoer’s squad after the Avalanche had dominated possession for most of the period. They were outshot 11-5 but escaped with a 1-0 lead.

Mikko Rantanen tied the game with his third of the playoffs in the second, but Seguin gave the Stars the lead again 5:13 later with a tip-in off an Evgenii Dadonov shot. The Stars then locked it down in the third, outshooting the Avalanche 10-7 and potting a couple of empty-net goals in the final two minutes by Seguin and Stankoven.

Jake Oettinger was strong once again with 29 saves, especially in the first two periods when the Stars were outshot 22-13. Alexandar Georgiev was solid as well after giving up four goals in Game 2, making 19 saves on 21 shots.

Game Notes

Stankoven became the fifth different player in Stars team history to score multiple goals in a playoff game, joining Joel Kiviranta (three in Game 7 of 2020 R2), Denis Gurianov (four in Game 6 of 2020 R1), Roope Hintz (two in Game 2 of 2019 R2 & Game 4 of 2019 R1) and Niko Kapanen (two in Game 5 of 2003 CSF).

Miro Heiskanen recorded his 42nd career postseason assist and tied Saku Koivu for the eighth most by a Finnish-born player – Jari Kurri (127) paces the list.

The Avalanche and Stars will meet up for Game 4 on Monday.