The third-period clock showed 16:43 remaining when Roope Hintz pulled the Dallas Stars within one goal of Colorado. That is a long time in hockey terms—plenty of runway for a tying chance, a rebound, or the sort of scramble that makes a 3-2 game feel entirely different.
None of it produced a goal. That made Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Avalanche at American Airlines Center more revealing than a simple late-rally headline. The clock left Dallas with a credible chance. The sharper problem was what happened when its chances needed to become finishes.
Work backward from Hintz’s goal and the shape of the game becomes clearer. Tyler Seguin moved the puck from beneath the goal line, and Hintz redirected it from the left side at 3:17 of the final period. Seguin finished with a goal and an assist, while Miro Heiskanen added two assists. Dallas had found a way to make the margin one.
Then Colorado closed the door without needing to build another fortress. At 13:44, Noah Juulsen blocked Jamie Benn’s attempt from the high slot. Mackenzie Blackwood made the rest of the final stretch uncomfortable, finishing with 24 saves, including 20 on 21 shots at even strength.
A block and a goaltender’s stop do not erase an attacking opportunity, but they do explain why the Stars’ late pressure never became a tying goal.
The more consequential failures came before Hintz’s response. With Colorado still ahead 3-1 late in the second period, Blackwood stopped Sam Steel on a breakaway at 17:37. Near the end of the period, he also denied Justin Hryckowian’s one-timer from the slot.
Those were two chances that could have reduced the Avalanche’s cushion before the third began. Instead, Dallas entered the final period needing two goals, then needed another finish after Hintz supplied the first.
That is where the 3-1 score deserves some context. Colorado did not spend the night overwhelming Dallas. The Stars finished with 26 shots on goal to the Avalanche’s 25 and generated 59 attempts to Colorado’s 47.
Those totals point to pressure, though they do not make every attempt equally threatening. Blackwood’s two late-second-period saves were a useful counterpoint to the idea that Dallas simply failed to attack.
Colorado also created the kind of decisive sequences Dallas lacked at five-on-five. Martin Nečas put the Avalanche ahead early in the second after exchanging the puck with Nathan MacKinnon and finishing from the high slot. Later, Nečas scored again during a 5-on-3 after Devon Toews’ shot was stopped and Gabriel Landeskog moved the rebound across to him.
Colorado converted the dangerous moments it earned; Dallas left its own moments unfinished.
