Mackenzie Blackwood shines in playoff debut as Avalanche bests Stars in Game 1

DALLAS Mackenzie Blackwood spent six years in the NHL without the chance to experience playoff hockey He was more than ready to make a great first impression Blackwood stopped shots in his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut helping the Colorado Avalanche to a - supremacy in Encounter of its opening-round series Saturday night against the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center Nathan MacKinnon scored twice and added an assist and for the second year in a row the Avs have a - series lead against the Stars It was pretty special Blackwood commented You know I was waiting to play in the playoffs for a long time and it was great to at last get my first one This match was close until the Avs poured in three goals in the final And while the visiting crew looked stout defensively for long stretches the Avalanche still needed its goaltender to make several fantastic saves After scoring goals in his first games Artturi Lehkonen couldn t buy one in the final games of the regular season He opened the scoring in Battle for the Avalanche with one of the oddest goals of his career Lehkonen shot the puck from near the top of the left circle As he darted toward the net after the rebound he and Mavrik Bourque got tangled up and Lehkonen s leg curled one into the top corner as he fell to the ice that would have made Lionel Messi proud Those are playoff goals Sometimes you gotta play soccer out there and put it top shelf Avs center Charlie Coyle announced Sometimes you get those bounces when you re doing the right things And it s just a testament to the way that Lehkonen plays and what he brings That s a huge goal There was an official review but the goal stood and the Avalanche led at of the second period Before the competition Avs coach Jared Bednar revealed the biggest thing Colorado needed to do differently in this series than last year when Dallas knocked his club out in the second round was get to the inside of the ice in the offensive zone and create specific havoc in front Stars goalie Jake Oettinger That was certainly several havoc Devon Toews also made it a - competition with a redirection at the edge of the crease After a MacKinnon empty-net goal Coyle added another within about two sticks length of the Stars goaltender after a beautiful one-touch pass from Jack Drury You re not going to sum from the perimeter Bednar disclosed Same thing with our guy If you want to outcome goals you ve got to get to the interior of the ice and you ve got to get there repeatedly The amount you get there is not going to be the same as a Tuesday night in November in the regular season It s going to be harder The competitive spirit of your unit has to go up and I thought it was up We created enough looks to win the hockey tournament Colorado s first big chance on the power play was a dud but Roope Hintz went to the box for bloodying MacKinnon with a high stick behind the Avs net late in the second MacKinnon made this one hurt His shot from the left circle deflected off Dallas defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin and fluttered past Oettinger to make it a - lead with remaining in the period Related Articles Avalanche-Stars Championship slapshots If Mackenzie Blackwood is going to play like this Western Conference is in trouble Avalanche Journal Colorado s path to a title looks much tougher than After season of injury adversity Avalanche is healthier crew in showdown with Stars Avalanche s new reality is here with playoff star Mikko Rantanen playing for the other guys How unprecedented roster turnover reshaped Avalanche for another Stanley Cup run Cale Makar s assist on MacKinnon s goal was his th in career playoff games He s the third-fastest defenseman to playoff assists behind only Bobby Orr and Al MacInnis The first big break of the series came less than five minutes in for the Avalanche Makar drew a pair of tripping penalties seconds apart to give Colorado a lengthy two-man advantage The Avs generated very little and the green-clad patrons roared to life after a sleepy opening four minutes for the Stars This was the first playoff appearance of Blackwood s NHL career and his first save was a big one turning aside a Hintz offering after the speedy Finn got free during a rush just shy of four minutes in Selected of Blackwood s best work came during Dallas lone power play of the first period as he turned aside five shots in those two minutes The Stars had only three shots in the other minutes There were several other momentum-shifting saves as well The only goal Blackwood allowed came when he had lost his stick and a deflection in front of him one-hopped off the ice over his left shoulder He s an amazing goalie MacKinnon revealed I have a lot of trust in him obviously He made specific huge saves tonight It could have easily been - and all of a sudden it s - It s a entirely different event with his saves Footnotes Avs captain Gabe Landeskog participated in the morning skate but did not play in Contest He has been practicing with the unit since Tuesday after playing in back-to-back AHL games with the Colorado Eagles this past weekend Those were his first hockey games since June Ross Colton left this competition early in the third period with a lower-body injury Bednar mentioned there was no update on Colton s status afterwards Want more Avalanche news Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis