Colin Blackwell Delivers Overtime Magic for Dallas Stars
Hockey fans love nothing more than an overtime heart-stopper, and that's exactly what the crowd at American Airlines Center got on April 21, 2025. The Dallas Stars, desperate to shake off their recent playoff funk, clawed out a 4-3 victory against the Colorado Avalanche in Game 2 of their first-round Western Conference playoff series, tying up the series at one game apiece.
Colin Blackwell, a name you might not spot on every Dallas highlight reel, became the hero of the night. With just over two minutes to go in overtime, Blackwell snagged the game-winner in a scene straight out of scrappy playoff hockey. The play started with Blackwell himself putting the puck on net. It ricocheted off teammate Sam Steel, then Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard, and somehow landed right back on Blackwell's stick. This time, he made no mistake, slipping the puck past Colorado’s goalie for pure playoff redemption—and unleashing bedlam among the home fans.
This wasn’t just another overtime goal, either. It marked Dallas’s first playoff win since 2022 and snapped an ugly eight-game Game 1 losing streak that’s haunted the team for years. Tyler Seguin put it simply after the game: Sometimes you just need to break out of a slump by keeping it basic—no fancy stuff, just grind and hope the breaks finally go your way. For Dallas, the relief was huge. The importance of tying the series at 1-1 before heading to Colorado for Game 3 can’t be understated, especially after last season’s brutal home playoff start.
Stars Find Depth and Grit in Do-or-Die Moments
The night wasn’t just about Blackwell, though. Tyler Seguin, Thomas Harley, and Evgenii Dadonov each found the scoresheet for Dallas, balancing out the Stars’ attack and showing why depth matters so much in the playoffs. For a team that’s stumbled early in recent springs, seeing familiar names like Seguin score alongside role players like Harley and Dadonov speaks to a squad that isn’t relying on just one superstar to make magic happen.
After weeks of rotating through the lineup and dealing with inconsistent minutes late in the regular season, Blackwell played with something to prove. "I always felt my game's kinda built for the playoffs," he said, and judging by his OT heroics, it’s tough to argue with him. This kind of performance isn’t just a stat sheet footnote—it says the Stars have a secret weapon who thrives under the harsh playoff spotlight.
The Avalanche didn’t slink quietly out of this one, though. They still showed the firepower everyone expects, keeping the pressure on Dallas from the first drop of the puck. Now, locked up at one game apiece, the series shifts to Colorado for Game 3 with a whole new level of tension. Both sides know how critical momentum is, and with the series effectively reset to a best-of-five, every save, block, and bounce gets magnified.
If the start of this postseason matchup is any indication, buckle up—because neither the Stars nor the Avalanche look ready to give up an inch.
