The Colorado Avalanche’s top line gave the Dallas Stars plenty of trouble as they led a come-from-behind 5-4 overtime win Thursday night at the American Airlines Center.
The trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, and Mikko Rantanen scored all five Colorado goals as the Avalanche came back from a 4-2 deficit in the final 10:15 to notch their 12th comeback win of the season.
“We did a lot of good things to win that game,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said postgame. “We had the game on our stick a bunch of times down the stretch, including with the empty net to finish it off, and we didn’t. It bit us in the end, so you’ve got to learn from it. The big lesson is that their best players and their best line had all five goals. We have to find a way to make sure we do a better job containing them, and in games like this, your best players have to be your best players. Their guys were better than ours tonight.”
The Stars got big performances from forwards Tyler Seguin and Mason Marchment, both continuing strings of successful play against Colorado. Seguin scored two goals and now has four in two games against the Avalanche this season, and Marchment added two assists to give him four points in the two matchups.
Forward Matt Duchene, drafted by Colorado in 2009 and a member of the franchise for nine years, also had two assists in the game, while Joe Pavelski and Evgenii Dadonov each scored goals.
But in the end, it was not enough to get the win, as a bouncing puck ended up in the net off the skate of Rantanen, tying the game with 11.3 seconds remaining in regulation, and MacKinnon buried the game-winner on a two-man breakaway in overtime.
“They’re a good team. That’s two games in a row where we’ve had control of the game, and they found a way back in,” Duchene said after the game. “Obviously, it’s a tough bounce for us on the game-tyer, and a rolling puck cost us in overtime. It’s a frustrating loss, but we played a good game tonight.”
The Stars (22-10-5) return to the ice at 7 p.m. CT on Saturday as the Nashville Predators (21-17-1) come to town.
