In a must-win game, the Colorado Avalanche laid an egg.

A really big one.

Hours after learning that the team had lost Valeri Nichushkin to a six month suspension, the Avalanche, as their head coach described it, looked “frozen” in the first period, getting outshot 16-2 in front of their home crowd and generally looking awful.

It got better after that, but only by a little bit. The Stars didn’t let the Avalanche off the mat, getting out to a 3-0 start on their way to a 5-1 victory. The series will now head back to Dallas, where the Stars have the opportunity to eliminate the Avalanche on their home ice Wednesday night.

Casey Mittelstadt scored the only goal for Colorado, while Alexandar Georgiev made 29 saves in the loss. Georgiev was the only reason the game wasn’t a complete blowout after 20 minutes, as his team hung him out to dry.

First Period

The only word to describe the first period from the Avalanche: Woof. Colorado looked like a team hit with a dump truck’s worth of bad news before the game, because they were. Valeri Nichushkin was suspended for six months an hour before the game started, and then word came down that Devon Toews would miss the game due to illness. I have to assume the rest of the locker room was stunned, and they played like it.

Dallas outshot the Avalanche 16-2 in period one, and even that might have been generous. The only reason the score wasn’t completely lopsided was because Alexandar Georgiev came to play, making multiple high-end stops to keep his team in it.

That team never woke up in period one, and just when it looked like they might get some momentum going on their first powerplay, disaster struck.

Cale Makar, with the puck behind his net, was pressured by Wyatt Johnston and turned the puck over. Johnston sent it to Sam Steele, whose initial shot was stopped by Georgiev. Johnston’s first rebound attempt was saved, but he smacked home the rebound, making it 1-0 Stars. Georgiev didn’t exactly get a ton of help on the play overall with the team’s best players on the ice.

With just seconds remaining in the period, Georgiev stopped Benn on a breakaway to keep it 1-0. Fans didn’t boo, but I think that could have been because they were stunned by what they just saw. An ugly performance by the home team.

Second Period

The second period didn’t start all that much better for Colorado. While they started generating a little bit of offense, they spent far too much time chasing in their own end.

Four minutes into the period, Caleb Jones, filling in for Toews, took his second penalty of the game.

What followed was a dominant powerplay for the Stars, where they barely left the zone. Sam Girard broke his stick on Marchment’s back, giving the road team more of an advantage. Georgiev held them off as long as he could, but couldn’t stop everything.

Jason Robertson eventually hit Johnston on the backdoor, and his one-time shot went off Georgiev and in, making it 2-0.

Five minutes later, Cale Makar threw a reverse hit in his own end recovering the puck. Fans loved it, but he seemed more worried about the hit than the puck.

It eventually came back to Miro Heiskanen at the point, whose seeing-eye shot beat Georgiev, making it 3-0.

A minute later, the Avalanche managed to get on the board, as Casey Mittelstadt snuck out from behind the net, curled the puck, and beat Oettinger on the glove side, cutting the lead to two.

This period wasn’t quite as lopsided as the first one, as the Stars only managed to outshoot the Avalanche 12-11, but they were able to extend their lead even more, which is all that matters.

Third Period

At no point did it feel like this game was ever in reach for Colorado, even when they were pushing in the third period. Colorado had chances, but Oettinger swallowed them up pretty easily.

About halfway through the period, a total breakdown in the defensive zone saw Evgeni Dadonov extend the Stars lead to three, and that was all she wrote. Sam Steele added an empty netter, and the Stars walked out of the building with a 5-1 win.

The Avalanche will now head to Dallas in need of a win to extend their season. Game Five on Wednesday starts at 6 PM MST. CHN will be at American Airlines Center for the game.