At 15:52 of the second period, Radek Faksa was sent away for tripping Nathan MacKinnon. Kyle Capobianco was already serving a cross-checking minor that began at 14:18, leaving Dallas short two skaters for the next 22 seconds. Martin Nečas needed only 22 seconds to make the overlap count.
Nečas scored at 16:14, giving Colorado its first two-goal advantage of the night and eventually deciding the Avalanche’s 3-2 victory over the Dallas Stars. The sequence captured the night’s central problem: in a game with very little finishing room, one lapse in penalty management can outweigh a lot of otherwise solid work.
The play itself was brutally straightforward. Devon Toews’ shot from the point reached Jake Oettinger, who stopped it. Gabriel Landeskog collected the rebound and moved it across to Nečas, who converted from the left side. No officiating debate is needed to explain the goal. Dallas had two minors overlapping, Colorado had a five-on-three, and the Avalanche executed the advantage.
That was especially costly because the teams otherwise produced identical power-play totals in different circumstances. Dallas went 1-for-1 with the extra skater, while Colorado finished 1-for-3. The Stars killed two of Colorado’s three opportunities, which is respectable penalty-killing work. The one they failed to kill, however, came with Dallas down two men. Hockey is generous with small samples and merciless with the arithmetic.
Dallas’ power-play goal arrived late in the opening period, at 19:06. Tyler Seguin sent the puck toward the area where Mikko Rantanen was positioned, but Artturi Lehkonen’s skate changed its path and it ended up behind Mackenzie Blackwood. It was a fortunate finish, but fortune still requires the puck to cross the line.
The Stars took the only power play they received and turned it into a goal.
Nečas had already put Colorado ahead early in the middle period. His goal at the 3:05 mark followed an exchange with MacKinnon and an immediate release from high in the slot. The second Nečas goal required fewer moving parts: a point shot, a rebound, and a two-man advantage. Both were examples of Colorado converting the openings Dallas supplied rather than needing sustained offensive volume.
The Stars had enough activity to make the loss frustrating. Dallas put 26 shots on net to Colorado’s 25. Team coverage also counted 59 Dallas attempts, compared with 47 for the Avalanche.
Those totals support a competitive performance, but they do not turn every attempt into a dangerous finish. Colorado’s defense and Blackwood made sure the Stars’ territorial edge remained a narrow number on paper instead of enough goals on the scoreboard.
Blackwood was the most persuasive counterpoint to any argument that Dallas simply failed to create. He stopped 24 of 26 shots, including Sam Steel’s breakaway at 17:37 of the second period. Less than two minutes later, he denied Justin Hryckowian’s attempt from the slot.
Those were high-value moments for Dallas, and Blackwood handled both. The Stars were not waiting for an empty net or a miracle; they needed to beat a goaltender who gave Colorado a firm answer.
