Sam Steel had a breakaway. Justin Hryckowian had a clean look from the slot. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped both, and those two saves became the clearest explanation for why the Dallas Stars were still chasing Colorado when the second period ended.
The Avalanche goaltender denied Steel at 17:37 of the middle frame, then turned aside Hryckowian’s one-timer at 19:36. Colorado held a 3-1 lead through that stretch and eventually won at American Airlines Center by a 3-2 margin, leaving the Stars with a familiar-sounding complaint about missed chances. This time, though, the opposing goalie deserves a prominent place in the explanation.
That credit makes the Stars’ finishing issue more precise. Dallas did create opportunities that could have changed the game. Blackwood simply handled two of the most important ones.
Two chances, two different tests
Steel’s breakaway demanded patience. With Dallas down by two, the forward had the kind of chance that can immediately alter the pressure on the trailing team. Blackwood did not give him the opening. The stop preserved Colorado’s advantage at a moment when the Stars could have reduced it before the period expired.
Hryckowian’s opportunity arrived with the intermission approaching. His one-timer from the slot was a different sort of threat: less open ice, more reliance on a quick release and precise execution. Blackwood stopped that attempt, too. Dallas went to the dressing room without the goal it needed to make the third period a genuinely different contest.
Those plays should not be flattened into “Dallas failed to finish.” The chances were real, and the goalie’s responses were consequential. A breakaway stop and a slot save are not routine touches added to a busy night; they are answers to attacks that had already reached dangerous territory.
Blackwood’s own postgame assessment offered a useful clue about how he approached them. Coming off a difficult performance against Toronto, when he surrendered five goals on 22 shots, he said he tried to stay more passive when Dallas attacked from poor angles and to identify the actual threats more clearly.
In practical terms, that means resisting unnecessary movement and refusing to turn every developing play into a chase.
The broader numbers support both sides of the story. Blackwood finished with 24 saves on 26 Dallas shots. The Stars produced 59 total shot attempts to Colorado’s 47, according to the Dallas account, and they had enough pressure to keep the result unsettled.
Tyler Seguin scored on the power play late in the first period, while Roope Hintz scored early in the final period to bring Dallas within one.
