– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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DALLAS — Thank goodness that the déjà vu that the Dallas Stars experienced on Thursday didn’t cost them a crucial victory. But it was darn near close.
Miro Heiskanen scored two power play goals for the Stars, who built a 4-0 lead before holding off another spirited comeback from the Colorado Avalanche in a 5-3 victory to tie the Western Conference semifinals series at one game apiece. Roope Hintz had a goal and three assists while Esa Lindell scored an empty-net goal to end the run of three consecutive goals that the Avalanche scored in the third period to after being down 4-0 at the second intermission.
Colorado came back from a 3-0 deficit in Game 1 to force overtime before Miles Wood’s game winner gave the Avalanche a shock win in on Tuesday.
“Obviously, we have to handle those situations better, but the silver lining is that we build three-and four-nothing leads, so we played some very good hockey for long stretches against them,” Stars head coach Pete DeBoer said. “Tonight was better than Game 1. We did most of the things we wanted to do tonight. We built a lead and the right guys scored and got on the board for us. ”
The right guys included Roope Hintz, who scored his second of the playoffs just 1:57 into the second period to double the Stars’ lead at 2-0 after Heiskanen’s first power play goal at the 14:46 mark of the opening period. After Heiskanen’s second power-play tally in the second for a 3-0 lead, Tyler Seguin scored his first of the playoffs while Dallas was shorthanded right before the end of the second period to build the Stars’ four-goal bulge.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Thursday evening’s contest, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Ross James. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are 30 pictures in total.
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