Early surge leads Avs past Stars, forces Game 6

[September 01, 2020]  Andre Burakovsky had two goals and an assist as the Colorado Avalanche avoided elimination with a 6-3 victory over the Dallas Stars on Monday night in Edmonton.

The Avalanche scored five goals in a 10-minute span during the first period to cut their deficit to three games to two in the Western Conference semifinal series. Game 6 of the best-of-seven set is scheduled for Wednesday.

Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each added a goal and an assist for the Avalanche. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Nazem Kadri also scored, and goaltender Michael Hutchinson, a 30-year-old making his first NHL playoff start, stopped 31 shots.

Joe Pavelski, Miro Heiskanen and Jamie Benn scored for the Stars, who were attempting to reach the conference final for the first time since 2008. Denis Gurianov had three assists.

Dallas goaltender Ben Bishop, making his first start since Aug. 13 after a stretch in which he was deemed unfit to play, was pulled after allowing four goals on 19 shots over the opening 13:43. Anton Khudobin came on in relief and stopped 20 of 22 shots.

Bellemare opened the scoring at 4:37 of the first, on a one-timer off a pass from Logan O'Connor.

It stayed that way until Burakovsky jumped on a rebound in the slot and beat Bishop at 11:51.

Just 41 seconds later, MacKinnon took a pass from J.T. Compher and put a one-timer past Bishop.

It took the Avalanche another 1:11 to score their fourth goal and knock out Bishop, as Kadri jumped on a loose puck in front of the net and put it in at 13:43.

Rantanen capped the surge at 14:27 of the first, getting his stick on Samuel Girard's backhanded shot to tip it past Khudobin.

Pavelski scored at 7:50 of the second and Heiskanen tallied on the power play at 17:31 to give Dallas hope of a third-period comeback.

However, Burakovsky scored at 18:04 of the second to give the Avalanche a four-goal cushion heading into the final period.

Benn scored the lone goal of the third on the power play at 14:12.

--Field Level Media

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