It’s hard to be unhappy with the way the Colorado Avalanche played on Wednesday evening at Ball Arena, but the night still ended with the Dallas Stars gaining on them in the Central Division standings.
That’s got to sting just a little.
The Avalanche controlled the majority of the play all evening and gave Dallas very little room to work with, but the Stars were the team that walked away with the extra point, taking the game 2-1 in a shootout. Even with his team’s Central Division lead dropping to two points, coach Jared Bednar wasn’t angry at all with how his team played.
“I watch our team play like that and I have very little issues with the way we played,” Bednar said after the loss. “I’ve said it all along, I’m not going to judge our team on results only. I think that’s a losing battle. I think you play like that and good things will happen. From the goaltender out, everyone was good.
“When your team has an effort like that, you’d love to be able to go in tomorrow (and) they got rewarded for that type of effort, but it’s not always the case.”
It took over 16 minutes for the Stars to even produce a shot on net in the first period, and the ones they did get weren’t all that dangerous. Through two periods, they had only been credited with nine shots on Scott Wedgewood.
The Avalanche netminder bounced back after a tough performance on Monday against the Penguins and loved what he saw in front of him, despite the final result.
“A ton of good,” Wedgewood said. “I don’t know what percentage you want to give, (but) most nights, we win that game. They didn’t have much all night. … A lot of good things, but it’s just hockey’s hockey and sometimes that’s the way it goes.”
A lot of good, but the Avalanche will not be rewarded when you look at the standings tomorrow morning. Colorado sits atop the Central with 98 points, but the Stars are right on their tail with 96. Colorado has played one fewer game. They meet one more time before the playoffs begin and if you’re into gambling, you might want to take the odds on that game going to overtime, just as the first three meetings have.
The margin for error between these teams is razor thin, just as it has been the last few years, and it would sure seem like there’s a good chance these teams will meet again at some point in May.
“When it comes down to it, you have to capitalize on a couple of their mistakes or the chances that you create and then you got to make sure that they don’t on theirs, because there’s only going to be a handful of quality scoring chances in any one of those games,” Bednar said.
Stars 2, Avalanche 1
What happened: A shootout has decided each game between these two teams this season.
What went right: Cale Makar might have been the best player on the ice and for the second straight game against Dallas, found a way to solve Jake Oettinger. That’s something he failed to do in the playoffs last season, so if there was any sort of mental block, Makar seems to have overcome it. “He was one of our best players on the ice,” Bednar said.
What went wrong: On the flip side, not the best performance from either Martin Necas and Nathan MacKinnon at even strength, as they had some unforced errors while they looked to make plays.
Avalanche goal scorers: Makar (20)
Stars goal scorers: Robertson (37)
Between the pipes: Scott Wedgewood bounced back and stopped 17 of 18 shots in the game, including some big stops in overtime.
What’s next: The Avalanche start a four-game road trip on Friday in Chicago at 6:30 p.m.