The 15th different player to score for the Dallas Stars this postseason was the one who’s done so more than anyone still skating across the league.
Joe Pavelski — for the first time in these playoffs — is on the board.
Just don’t expect a celebration.
“It’s nice,” Pavelski said after the Stars’ 5-3 loss to the Colorado Avalanche in Game 5 on Wednesday at American Airlines Center. “but it’s not a good feeling.”
Pavelski scored the game’s first goal nine minutes into the first period with a backhander in front of Colorado’s net off a slick feed from Matt Duchene. He logged his second assist of these playoffs in the second period on a Miro Heiskanen goal that gave the Stars a 2-1 lead.
The Avalanche scored four of the next five goals and forced a Game 6 on Friday back in Colorado. All the more reason for the Stars to hope that Pavelski’s goal-scoring acumen more mirrors his historical trends instead of this season’s.
Pavelski’s 74 career playoff goals lead all active NHL players; the 39-year-old’s score Wednesday gave him two more than Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (72) and three more than Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby (71). Pavelski has scored 26 postseason goals in four trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs with Dallas, and recorded a career-high 27 playoff points in the Stars’ 2020 finals run.
He averaged nearly half-a-goal per game in his first 11 trips to the playoffs. It took him 12 games to record his first this year.
“The production hasn’t been there,” Pavelski said. “I’ve done some good things, and we’ve been winning games. It’s funny, because you hear some of the noise and you try and take care of the process.”
The process typically favors the veteran. Pavelski’s 141 career playoff points are the third-most all-time among U.S.-born players. He’s three away from tying Hockey Hall of Famer Chris Chelios for second all-time.
A few more this series will inch him further up the leaderboard. It’ll also help Dallas keep pace with a Colorado offense that found serious life Wednesday for the first time in the second round. The Avalanche scored five goals or more in each of their five first-round games against the Winnipeg Jets but had been limited to five total in Games 2, 3 and 4 against the Stars.
Defenseman Cale Makar (who scored three goals against the Jets) reintroduced himself in a big way on Wednesday with a pair of goals; so, too, did forward Nathan MacKinnon — a 51-goal scorer in the regular season — who notched his second of the series in the third period to squash Dallas’ comeback effort.
“It really is probably cliché, but you want to win games now,” Pavelski said. “However you do it, whatever can get it done. Do your part when you get a chance … chip in.”
Photos: Stars fall in Game 5 vs. Avalanche
