The Dallas Stars moved to within one victory of the Western Conference Final with a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche at Ball Arena on Monday night. Wyatt Johnston led the offense with two goals and an assist, helping Dallas establish a 3-1 series lead in the second-round matchup.
Dallas opened the scoring late in the first period when Johnston scored a shorthanded wrist shot off a pass from Sam Steel at 15:37. Johnston struck again on the power play at 5:46 of the second period, firing a snap shot past Colorado goaltender Alexandar Georgiev off assists from Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen. Heiskanen widened the margin to 3-0 at 11:24 with an even-strength wrist shot set up by Logan Stankoven and Robertson.
Colorado responded 1:11 later when Casey Mittelstadt scored on a wrist shot with an assist from Jonathan Drouin to cut the deficit to two. Dallas regained firm control in the third period, however, as Evgenii Dadonov scored at 9:27 on a wrist shot assisted by Mason Marchment and Heiskanen. Steel sealed the outcome with an empty-net wrist shot at 18:10, assisted by Johnston and Tyler Seguin.
Jake Oettinger earned the win in net for the Stars, turning aside 24 of 25 shots. Georgiev stopped 29 of 33 shots in the loss as Dallas outshot Colorado 34-25. Special teams factored heavily into the score, with Dallas converting one of two power-play opportunities and killing both of Colorado's power plays in addition to scoring Johnston's shorthanded goal.
The victory was the third straight for Dallas in the series after dropping Game 1 in overtime, and it marked the team's second consecutive win overall. Johnston and Heiskanen both reached three points on the night, with Heiskanen finishing with a goal and two assists to back Johnston's three-point performance.
