Tyler Seguin’s pass was meant for Mikko Rantanen near the far post. Artturi Lehkonen’s skate had other ideas, redirecting the puck behind Mackenzie Blackwood and giving the Dallas Stars an unlikely goal.
That fortunate bounce tied Tuesday’s game against Colorado, but Seguin’s night was more than a lucky deflection. He scored once, assisted once and put seven shots on goal in Dallas’ 3-2 defeat at American Airlines Center. The performance offered a clear answer to Wyatt Johnston’s absence. It also exposed how much more Dallas needs from the rest of its forward group.
Johnston was scratched because of an illness shortly before the game, and coach Glen Gulutzan said he would not travel for Wednesday’s rematch in Denver. The lineup change left Seguin among the players expected to absorb more offensive responsibility. He did that in two distinctly different ways, though neither contribution was enough to overcome Colorado’s better finishing.
The first came with less than a minute remaining in the opening period. Seguin sent the puck toward Rantanen from the power-play setup, but Lehkonen’s skate changed its path and sent it into the net. It was not the cleanest goal Dallas will score this season, yet it still reflected a useful instinct: place the puck into a dangerous area and accept whatever chaos follows.
Blackwood had already stopped Seguin earlier in the period and denied Colin Blackwell from the slot, so Dallas had at least made the Avalanche goaltender work before the odd bounce arrived.
Seguin’s second contribution was far easier to explain. Early in the third, with Dallas behind 3-1, he handled the puck below the goal line and slipped it toward Roope Hintz. Hintz finished from the left circle, bringing the Stars within one with 16:43 remaining.
The timing mattered. Dallas had enough game left to make Colorado uncomfortable, and Seguin had created the chance with a feed to Hintz rather than a ricochet.
The problem was what came afterward. Dallas did not find another goal, despite the deficit remaining within reach for most of the final period. Rantanen finished without a shot on goal, while Jason Robertson recorded two.
Those totals do not describe every possession, screen or defensive obligation, but they do reveal a thin scoring night from two prominent members of the attack. Seguin and Hintz supplied the goals; too few others supplied the pressure required to make a comeback likely.
Colorado’s important sequences were sharper. Artturi Lehkonen opened the scoring after Josh Manson’s point shot struck Nathan MacKinnon’s skate, leaving Lehkonen an opportunity to lift the puck over Jake Oettinger. Martin Nečas then restored the Avalanche advantage early in the second period by trading passes with MacKinnon before shooting immediately from high in the slot.
Later in the frame, Colorado converted a 5-on-3: Oettinger stopped Devon Toews’ shot, Gabriel Landeskog moved the rebound across, and Nečas finished from a sharp angle.
