MacKinnon, Avalanche pull away from Stars in Game 1 of Western 1st Round

DALLAS -- Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and an assist for the Colorado Avalanche in a 5-1 win against the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round at American Airlines Center on Saturday.

Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews and Charlie Coyle also scored, and Logan O'Connor had two assists for the Avalanche, who are the No. 3 seed from the Central Division. Mackenzie Blackwood made 23 saves.

“[Blackwood]’s incredible,” Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said. “When you have a guy like that back there that gives you that confidence, he’s very calm in the net, so you know if you do something or make a mistake, he’s going to be there. He definitely showed up tonight. Hopefully he can continue to do it, because he’s a huge piece of our team, and a great guy and a great player.’’

Roope Hintz scored, and Jake Oettinger made 20 saves for the Stars, who are the No. 2 seed in the Central.

“I thought we played maybe our best game in a month or two tonight,” Dallas defenseman Thomas Harley said. “Being down 1-0 in a series is never fun, but we did some good things tonight and we’ll look to build on that and continue doing that and finish off some chances in Game 2. We forechecked hard, we defended well. So obviously it’s not ideal going down in a series. But there’s a reason it’s first to four.”

Game 2 of the best-of-7 series will be in Dallas on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; Victory+, ESPN, ALT2, TVAS-D, SN360).

The Stars killed off 1:24 of a 5-on-3 power play by the Avalanche at 13:22 of the first period after forwards Mason Marchment and Wyatt Johnston took separate tripping penalties.

“I think we played pretty good,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “It was one of those nights where I felt like we got a really good look, and they either got a save or we missed, and then there was a couple where they would go right back down, and [they were] opportunistic. Two of them were basically off a foot and one was off us, but you have to make your bounces in the playoffs and [Colorado] worked for their bounces tonight. We have to work for some bounces around the net.”

Lehkonen gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 9:30 of the second period when he followed up his own rebound on a shot from the right face-off circle and had the puck bounce in off his shin pad.

“Those are playoff goals,” Coyle said. “Sometimes you got to play soccer out there and put it top shelf. [MacKinnon] makes a good play to him, and he gets a shot off. The rebound, you go to the net hard, sometimes those things happen where you get a rebound like that, it goes off your body.

“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, and that's a huge goal. It's not your typical goal, but it's a huge one.”

MacKinnon extended it to 2-0 at 16:38 on the power play with a shot from the top of the left circle that deflected off Dallas defenseman Ilya Lyubushkin.

Hintz cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 6:45 of the third period, deflecting a Harley point shot in the slot moments after Blackwood's stick became lodged into the side of the net.

“I think we played pretty good,” Hintz said. “We just have to leave the rest out there, whatever we got, and now we just have to take the good things we did today and then watch some videos of what we didn’t do good and then take those with us and get ready for the next game. I think we got some good looks tonight. Their goalie played well, so I think if we keep going like that and keep making plays, it will find the way in.”

Toews extended it to 3-1 at 12:56 with a backdoor tap-in deflection off a feed from Josh Manson.

“You’re not going to score on the perimeter, same thing with our guys,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said. “If you want to score goals, you have to get to the interior of the ice and you have to get there repeatedly because they are good goalies on both sides of it. So, obviously that’s the goal of every team, not just to sit on the perimeter and shoot pucks. So, I thought we did a nice job. We got to some rebounds, and we created some good looks both on the rush and 5-on-5 in the zone.”

MacKinnon pushed it to 4-1 with his second goal of the game at 16:52, scoring into an empty net.

“It’s just hockey,” MacKinnon said. “Prepare your best, do your best and see where the chips fall. I think that’s all you can really do. It doesn’t really matter if it’s Game 40 or Game 1 of the playoffs. [Blackwood]’s an amazing goalie. I have a lot of trust in him, obviously. He made some huge saves tonight. It could have easily been 2-2 and all of a sudden it’s 5-1. It’s a completely different game with his saves.”

Coyle then scored on a rebound shot from the slot 11 seconds later at 17:03 for the 5-1 final.

“We don't want to be in this situation, but we've had a lot of experience being down 1-0 in a series, so I think that gives us a positive note, that we know we're able to come back from it,” Johnston said. “I mean, we lost Game 1 against these guys last year, and we were able to get it back. Playoff time, you're going to lose games, you're going to win games. The most important game is the next game."

NOTES: Makar (73 games) became the third-fastest defenseman in Stanley Cup Playoffs history to reach 60 career assists, behind only Bobby Orr (69 games) and Al MacInnis (71 games). … MacKinnon scored his 15th career postseason power-play goal to tie Peter Forsberg for the second most in franchise history, behind only Joe Sakic (27). … Avalanche forward Ross Colton left the game early in the third period after sustaining a lower-body injury. There was no update on his status. … Oettinger played his 48th playoff game for Dallas, the second most by a goaltender in Stars/North Stars history. … Dallas forward Mikko Rantanen had three shots on goal in 18:03 of ice time in his first playoff game against the Avalanche after being acquired by the Carolina Hurricanes on Jan. 24 and traded to the Stars on March 7.