Colorado Avalanche goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood (39) during in the first period against the Dallas Stars at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images
Sam Girard capped off a dominant 4-0 win over the Dallas Stars during Game 4 in Denver on Saturday. Girard, Logan O’Connor, Nathan MacKinnon, and Gabriel Landeskog all contributed goals in the win at home, only made more dominant by Mackenzie Blackwood, who earned his first career postseason shutout. Blackwood has played his first four career postseason games with the Avalanche this year.
Dallas forced a Game 5 during their Game 2 win at home (American Airlines Center) on April 21st. That game is set for tonight, April 28th.
MacKinnon currently sits in a six-way tie for first in postseason goals, among Adrian Kempe (LA Kings), Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota Wild), Evan Bouchard (Edmonton Oilers), Matt Boldy (Minnesota Wild), and Andrei Svechnikov (Carolina Hurricanes), all at four goals apiece.
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The Halifax, Nova Scotia native also leads the team in points at five, the next closest being a two-way tie between Girard and Jonathan Drouin at three.
Blackwood, who only has four career postseason games under his belt, has been an X-factor in this series.
While the Avalanche have spent the most time leading in this series, the Stars have only spent 62 seconds worth of game time with the lead. Two of their wins came during overtime, largely due to Blackwood holding the fort down and giving the team in front of him the best chance possible to win.
He did everything well, just a solid force back there for us. And when you have a guy like that, it definitely gives you so much confidence with the puck and that he’s the backbone of our back end. So it’s fun to play in front of him.
– Cale Makar on Blackwood’s performance on Saturday.
Puck drop: 7:50 pm MT/8:50 pm CT
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T.V. Broadcast: ESPN (U.S.), Sportsnet, SN360, and TVA Sport (Canada), Altitude (Colorado), Victory+ (Dallas)
Radio Broadcast: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 (Colorado), Sportsradio 96.7/1310 The Ticket (Dallas)
