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Drouin has a two-goal heroic night

  
heroic
Valeri Nichushkin #13, Jonathan Drouin #27, and Mikko Rantanen #96 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrate a goal against the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center on January 4, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo courtesy of Glenn James/NHLI via Getty Images)

When the Colorado Avalanche last faced the Dallas Stars, they walked away with a 6–3 victory. Better yet, they scored all their goals unanswered.

Meeting for the second time during the regular season, the Stars learned from their mistakes and made the Avalanche work for a victory with even more on the line.

With a victory, the Avalanche would widen their point margin and strengthen their first-place seat. With a loss, Winnipeg could easily steal the top spot and Dallas would improve to an uncomfortably close record, trailing the Avalanche by one point.

First period

Right out of the gate, it was clear it would be a good game. Neither team could find an opening for their first goal.

Eventually, the Stars put up the first goal on an unlucky bounce near Colorado’s net.

But letting Dallas run away with the game was simply not in the cards. Nathan MacKinnon found the back of the net. Miles Wood earned his first point of the night with the assist, and Jack Johnson received the secondary.

Colorado outshot Dallas 12–9 after the first frame.

Second period

Though entering the second period on a level field, it wouldn’t take long for the favor to tip in Dallas’ favor. Not two minutes into the period, the Stars found their second opportunity and took the lead once again.

Seven minutes of aggressive play yields nothing until Jack Johnson is sent to the box for a high sticking penalty, awarding the Stars a four-minute advantage. They quickly converted and widened the margin to two.

With every passing minute, the game was looking more and more concerning for the Avalanche. Despite having several excellent opportunities, they were coming up empty-handed and down by two.

Jonathan Drouin made his first heroic goal of the night to bring the Avalanche within one with only 12 seconds remaining on the clock. MacKinnon picked up his second point of the night on the secondary assist.

Third period

By the time the third period came around, both teams were applying constant pressure in the offensive zone. Dallas was rewarded first, reclaiming the two-goal margin.

A whole 38 seconds later, Drouin finds his superhero cape once again and fires his own into the net.

With the Stars’ pressure, the Avalanche had to level the game. After pulling Alexandar Georgiev out of the net, the extra offensive power paid off. Mikko Rantanen forced the puck into the net with just over a minute to go.

Overtime

The Avalanche don’t go to overtime often, and they lose in overtime even less.

Eager to pad the teams’ standings with another win was MacKinnon, who scored his third point of the night. Assisted by Devon Toews, the Avalanche closed out the game with a 5–4 win.

Takeaways

With tonight’s win in the books, Colorado stays first in the division. They move up to first in the conference and second in the league.

As of late, the offensive lineup has been showing true grit. After the humiliating loss to the Coyotes, it seems there is even more of a reason to never assume the game is going to go one way or the other.

In the last ten games, Drouin has made quite the name for himself. He has eleven total points: five goals and six assists.

The Avalanche will take on the Florida Panthers on Saturday, Dec. 2.

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