Roope Hintz's shootout winner lifts Stars past Avalanche, 3-2
Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz beat Colorado in the skills competition as Dallas avenged a loss from the night before, completing a home-and-home split with the Avalanche.
DENVER — Roope Hintz beat Colorado goaltender Scott Wedgewood in the fourth round of a shootout on Wednesday night, lifting the Dallas Stars to a 3-2 victory over the Avalanche at Ball Arena and squaring a home-and-home set between the two Central Division clubs.
The teams traded leads through regulation before Colorado forward Brock Nelson tied it at 2-2 with 8 minutes, 21 seconds left in the third period, sending the game to overtime and, eventually, a shootout. Neither team scored in the five-minute extra period. Dallas then won it in the skills competition as Jason Robertson and Hintz beat Wedgewood while Nazem Kadri was the lone scorer for Colorado, whose attempts by Martin Necas, Nathan MacKinnon and Nelson were all stopped by Stars goaltender Casey DeSmith.
Regulation seesaw
Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog opened the scoring 4:55 into the second period, tipping in a point shot on a feed from Kadri and Sam Malinski. Dallas defenseman Miro Heiskanen answered just over 10 minutes later, snapping a wrist shot past Wedgewood to make it 1-1 after two periods. Stars forward Arttu Hyry put Dallas ahead 1:20 into the third period with an unassisted backhand goal — his first of the season — but Nelson tied it again with 8:21 to go, converting passes from Artturi Lehkonen and Kadri for his third goal of the young campaign. DeSmith made 25 saves on 27 shots through overtime to earn the win, while Wedgewood stopped 20 of 22 Stars shots in a losing effort. According to the official NHL box score, Colorado held a 27-22 edge in shots on goal despite the loss.
A split home-and-home
The win came one night after Colorado had beaten Dallas 3-2 in regulation at American Airlines Center, meaning the two clubs split a back-to-back, home-and-home series by identical 3-2 scorelines on consecutive nights. The result lifted Colorado to 4-2-1 and Dallas to 3-3-1, according to ESPN's game summary, which places the Avalanche third and the Stars sixth in the eight-team Central Division through the first two weeks of the season.
