Coming into the game tonight I had two different narratives in my head. It was all going to go something like this: I am so happy/sad that the Dallas Stars finally won/lost again in Denver tonight, on the third anniversary of their last win in the Mile High City.
In the end, all I am is thrilled/irritated.
Scoring started early with a quick goal from Jason Spezza early in the first. I’m taking Twitter’s word for it; I’m still not able to use the new NHL.tv app on my Apple TV. The Stars did tweet this nifty gif:
A nifty pass from Patrick Eaves turns into Jason Spezza’s 40th point of the season. pic.twitter.com/nUxXGSj3R1
— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) February 5, 2016
So I supposed it must have actually happened.
Next I heard that Blake Comeau scored around freshly returned Jordie Benn and his defensive partner Patrik Nemeth and then three minutes later, Nick Holden scored around the same pairing again. And that was all in the first six minutes, before we’d even had the first TV time out. And then, five minutes left in the first period, I finally made it to a friends house with cable where I found Lindy Ruff shuffled the defensive pairings a bit, though (unfortunately for me) did not reunite Jordie Benn and Jason Demers.
There were a lot of chances for the Stars in the second where they out shot the Avalanche 19-8 and also wildly outpossessed them. How wildly, you might ask? 76 percent Corsi for for the Stars in the second period. 25 events to the Avalanche’s 8.
This period also saw a bit of bloodshed. With less than ten minutes to go in the second, Ales Hemsky got book ended by two Avalanche players. As he left the ice for the bench and Mattias Janmark came on in relief, Janmark ended up getting an elbow to the face from someone backpedaling to get back down the ice. It looked unintentional but mileage may vary.
Hemsky proved he’s probably mostly okay shortly after with a beautiful wrist shot that got neatly around Calvin Pickard. He was immediately run into the boards on his celebration so here’s hoping he didn’t exacerbate anything done to him during the earlier checks.
Also this period, Francois Beauchemin checked Jason Spezza hard into the boards. Spezza was slow to get back up and went immediately to the dressing room. He did not return the rest of the game.
Carl Soderberg scored to bring the Avalanche ahead again, and while Stars fans were still yelling about it on twitter, Zach Redmond scored to potentially put the Avalanche up two. But even twitter laymen could see the way Andreas Martinsen ran over Niemi. The Stars immediately challenged for goalie interference. Still not entirely sure why the Stars had to call for a challenge and it wasn’t just called on the ice, but the refs made the correct call in the end.
Nathan MacKinnon got a penalty shot in the third after Klingberg caught him on a breakaway, but was denied by Niemi on the shot.
Jason Demers scored a one timer on a power play as Tyler Seguin was coming off his own off setting minor. Nemeth, for all that he helped give the Avalanche their 2-1 lead in the first, evened up his mistakes with two assists for the night on the Spezza and Demers goals.
And then, despite so much trying by the Stars (43 shots and 84 corsi events) we go to 3-on-3 OT, which Klingberg keeps mercifully short by scoring a beautiful slap shot 35 seconds in.
Three years to the day after their last win in Colorado, the Stars snap the curse and win on the road in Colorado. February is already so much better than January. (Hopefully it doesn’t take another three years to win the next one.)