After a successful previous road trip, the Colorado Avalanche traveled down to Dallas for the biggest game of the season. Coming into the game, the Stars sat six points ahead of Colorado in the standings, with the Avs having three games in hand. This contest could go a long way towards determining the Central Division Champion and even the overall #1 seed in the Western Conference. If it does, it is not good news for the Avs. Here’s the summarized version of the game courtesy of NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding.

First Period

Colorado’s start couldn’t have been much worse. They spent much of the first five minutes in their own zone, and were about to go on the penalty kill before Jason Robertson put a puck past an outstretched Alexandar Georgiev on the delayed penalty.

Five minutes later, the Stars won a face-off and Miro Heiskanen quickly fired the puck past Evan Rodrigues (foreshadowing) and a heavily screened Georgiev to put Dallas up 2-0.

Colorado began to find their footing a bit after taking an early blow, and they were soon rewarded with a Sam Girard snipe.

Several minutes had passed since the Heiskanen goal with no sign of Evan Rodrigues, as Denis Malgin took his spot on the top line. He soon reappeared on the 4th line.

With just a couple minutes left in the period, Lars Eller continued the rough start to his brief Avalanche career, as Joe Pavelski beat him to the back post and did what he does best: score goals against the Colorado Avalanche.

Second Period

After a slightly better start to the second, Colorado lost track of practically everyone in green and Mason Marchment walked in to a golden opportunity at the top of the face-off circle.

Dallas continued to pour it on, and their 4^th line scored yet another goal, ending Georgiev’s day early.

Keith Kinkaid came in for his first start in (mostly) an Avalanche uniform, as Colorado found themselves down 5-1 in the second period for the second consecutive game.

Third Period

Denis Malgin opened the third with a highlight he’ll want to forget, as he whiffed on a clear attempt and Wyatt Johnston snuck it past a surprised Kinkaid.

As both teams began to go through the motions and run the clock down, Andrew Cogliano caught some puck luck as a shot went into a crowd and came out right on to his stick in front of an open net.

After a Jamie Benn penalty and a subsequent scrum against Logan O’Connor, Colorado’s second power-play unit showed off some slick passing and Evan Rodrigues began his climb out of Jared Bednar’s doghouse.

Colorado pulled the goalie in a desperate comeback bid, but Jason Robertson quickly bookended the game with another goal to score Dallas’s extra point and make it 7-3.

Takeaways

The Avs were bad. Like really bad. If you told me that they were trying out an entirely brand-new defensive coverage system for the first time today, I’d believe you. Stars players were running around totally unimpeded all game long, and they dominated the Avs coming out of the gate—earning 61 percent Corsi for at 5-on-5 in an emphatic opening period that set the tone for the rest of the game.

After getting blown out in back to back first halves of games, questions must be raised about Colorado’s defensive commitment right now. New Jersey and Dallas are both good teams who could win it all, but going down 5-1 in consecutive second periods says a lot more about the team with 1 goal than it does about either team who scored five in half an hour. There’s no need to press the panic button, as the Avs allowed two goals or less in every game save for one in their recent six game winning streak, but Colorado has to work harder on defense than they have the last two games to keep this mini-slump from growing into a trend.

Upcoming

Colorado is right back it Sunday night, hosting another good team from the Western Conference in the Seattle Kraken. Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m. MT.