It had been 1,041 days since Gabriel Landeskog scored a purpose on NHL ice. One-thousand-forty-one days because the Colorado Avalanche captain had the prospect to listen to the purpose horn bellow at Ball Enviornment, to boost his fingers excessive whereas teammates mobbed him out on the sheet, to listen to his title introduced to the delight of a raucous Denver crowd.
The veteran winger bought a pared-down preview of the sensation two weeks in the past, when he potted his first purpose in three years throughout an AHL conditioning stint. However Saturday evening, below the big-league lights, Landeskog actually bought his second, scoring his first NHL purpose since June 2022 to assist the Avalanche declare a convincing Recreation 4 win over the Dallas Stars.
It was no present both, not a puck haphazardly deflected off a skate or a tap-in on the netfront — it was classic No. 92.
Moved as much as play alongside Brock Nelson on the second line Saturday evening, after making his return in Recreation 3 as a part of Colorado’s backside six, Landeskog was flying from the bounce. Halfway by Recreation 4, throughout a second interval that had seen Stars netminder Jake Oettinger repeatedly thwart the Avs attackers’ greatest efforts, Nelson picked up the puck behind Colorado’s internet and set off down the left wing.
He danced previous two Stars, drawing defender Ilya Lyubushkin in the direction of the wall, earlier than dishing to an open Landeskog within the slot. The captain made no mistake, accumulating the puck, winding up, and blasting it by Oettinger’s glove with authority.
He was mobbed by teammates towards the glass, then once more on the bench, the group raining ‘Landy! Landy!’ chants down on the ice. After the mud settled on what wound up an announcement 4-0 Avs win, he took a breath and mirrored on the load of the second.
“It means rather a lot,” Landeskog mentioned of the purpose post-game. “Clearly, I’ve envisioned scoring once more for a very long time. And there have been clearly days the place I didn’t know if I used to be ever going to get to attain once more. So, it feels good. It’s a decent playoff sequence and a giant sport right here at dwelling — to get to do it in entrance of our followers means rather a lot.
“Hopefully extra to come back.”
It wasn’t No. 92’s solely contribution on the evening. Landeskog chipped in a interval later, too, arising key on Colorado’s fourth purpose of the sport.
Halfway by the third, the captain picked up the puck behind the online, controlling it with one arm whereas holding off 230-pound defender Lian Bichsel with the opposite. The puck made its approach to defender Samuel Girard on the level, as Landeskog continued to battle with Bichsel on the netfront — that crease chaos wound up the distinction, as Girard’s point-shot glanced off Bichsel’s skate and thru a distracted Casey DeSmith’s legs for a 4-0 Colorado lead.
After two straight time beyond regulation losses coming into Saturday evening’s tilt, Landeskog had mentioned earlier than puck-drop that his membership hadn’t but performed its greatest hockey on this sequence. Amid a dominant Recreation 4 efficiency, the captain was asked in the event that they’d lastly proven their greatest.
“Yeah,” he mentioned. “You’re seeing it proper now.”
Blackwood, Oettinger on reverse ends of Recreation 4 goalie battle
It was a wild one for the netminders.
On one finish, Colorado’s Mackenzie Blackwood got here up with an important efficiency for the Avs, turning within the first playoff shutout of his profession. The 28-year-old had 4 shutouts on the season in 2024-25 — three since becoming a member of the Avalanche — the final coming a month in the past to the day, towards the Los Angeles Kings.
Whereas the squad in entrance of him got here up with a four-goal evening, the previous two video games on this sequence served as proof sufficient of the significance of Blackwood’s outing, Dallas taking Video games 2 and three with one-goal OT victories.
However on the opposite finish of the sheet, it was certainly a irritating one for Dallas’s star within the cage.
Look on the rating and you could possibly come away considering it was an off evening for Oettinger — in fact, it was one in all his best performances, the Stars’ netminder arising with a slew of highlight-reel saves as his defenders go away him out to dry time and time once more. The flurry culminated in a second interval that noticed Colorado pour 22 pictures on Dallas’s internet, with all of the Avs’ marquee names getting grade-A cracks on the cage.
That the house facet solely led 3-0 after 40 minutes was a testomony to the work Oettinger put in. Nonetheless, after piecing collectively a dominant second interval that noticed him bail his membership out repeatedly, Oettinger began the third interval on the bench. He completed the evening with 31 saves on 34 pictures, earlier than DeSmith took over.
“Only for relaxation, for Monday,” head coach Pete DeBoer mentioned of the daring choice to drag Oettinger. “It simply didn’t make sense, within the scenario we had been in, and the way we had been taking part in, to maintain Jake in there.”
The Avs completed with 48 pictures on the evening, greater than doubling the Stars’ 23.
MacKinnon, O’Connor proceed to tempo Avs with special-teams flurry
Whereas it was the headliners who put the sport away, it was a fourth-liner who bought the winners rolling Saturday.
Halfway by the opening interval, when all of it nonetheless sat degree and Dallas nonetheless had designs on taking a 3-1 lead on this sequence, a play from depth winger Logan O’Connor broke the sport open for Colorado. Half-a-minute right into a Stars energy play, the puck got here to defender Thomas Harley on the Avalanche blue line — because the star rearguard tried to corral a move, O’Connor went at him full-tilt, poking the puck free, beelining for the Dallas internet, and sniping dwelling the sport’s first purpose.
The unassisted shorthanded masterpiece was O’Connor’s fifth level of this four-game sequence, leaving him tied for the workforce lead, regardless of averaging the Fifteenth-most minutes on the squad per evening.
Tied with him on the high of that checklist is Nathan MacKinnon, who’s been the engine for this Colorado facet since Recreation 1. After placing objectives on the board in Video games 1 and a couple of and discovering himself held pointless in Recreation 3, No. 29 bought again on the scoresheet Saturday in memorable trend, beating Oettinger with a blistering power-play one-timer on the Avs’ second purpose of the evening.
With the Recreation 4 marker, MacKinnon now sits tied for the league lead in post-season goal-scoring, having potted at the very least as soon as in three of 4 video games by the primary spherical to date.
Rantanen but to interrupt out as Stars’ offence held at bay
On an evening that noticed each MacKinnon and Landeskog flutter the twine, the previous third member of the Avs’ three-headed monster trudged by yet one more disappointing night.
A lot was product of Dallas’s deadline blockbuster that introduced Mikko Rantanen to city, and of the coincidence that introduced No. 96 right into a first-round sequence along with his former membership (after Colorado initially traded him to Carolina, who in flip flipped him to the Avs’ division rival).
A two-time 100-point scorer with Colorado, Rantanen collected 18 factors by 20 video games with Dallas to shut out the common season. By 4 video games on this first-round bout along with his former mates, although, he’s been largely silenced.
The gifted Finn has a lone secondary help to his title to date in Spherical 1 — albeit a reasonably vital one, Rantanen having helped spur the play that resulted in Dallas’s Recreation 3 time beyond regulation winner. Exterior of that sequence, he’s been held off the board by his former membership, going pointless in Video games 1 and a couple of, and once more Saturday evening in Recreation 4.
With the sequence now tied, and a best-of-three remaining, it’s a pattern that certainly needs to be righted if the Stars hope to creator one other deep run by the West.
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