Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars – 8/24/20 NHL Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Dallas Stars and the Colorado Avalanche meet in game two of their best-of-seven Western Conference semi-final series in NHL action from Rogers Place on Monday night.

The Dallas Stars will try to take a 2-0 lead in the series after opening the set with a 5-3 win over the Avalanche in game one last time out. Tyler Seguin opened the scoring for the Stars just four minutes into the game but Nathan MacKinnon would tie the game at one for Colorado just over four minutes later. Blake Comeau would restore Dallas’ lead just before the midway mark of the opening frame and Alexander Radulov made it 3-1 Dallas with 3:32 to go in the first period. Gabriel Landeskog brought the game back to 3-2 for Colorado less than five minutes into the 2nd before Radulov restored Dallas’ two-goal cushion just over nine minutes into the second. MacKinnon would bring Colorado back to within a goal with his second goal of the game with a minute and a half to go in the second period. That was as close as Colorado would get at 4-3, as Roope Hintz made it 5-3 Dallas just under nine minutes into the 3rd, and the Stars would ride that lead to the finish line as Colorado simply didn’t have an answer the rest of the game.

Anton Khudobin got the win after stopping 28 of 31 shots faced in goal for Dallas in the win while Pavel Francouz ended up with the defeat for the Avalanche after allowing two goals on 20 shots in relief of Philipp Grubauer who was pulled in the first period.

Dallas is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall and 2-5 in their last 7 games as an underdog while the over is 7-2-5 in their last 14 conference semi-final games. Colorado is 15-6 in their last 21 games overall and 5-17 in their last 22 conference semi-final games while the over is 4-0 in their last 4 games overall. Dallas is 5-1 in the last 6 meetings and the under is 7-1 in the last 8 meetings between these two teams.

This should be an interesting game two, as two of the more balanced teams in the field went on an offensive burst in the opener. With that said, Khudobin and Francouz are still the respective backups on their teams and while they’re quality goaltenders, they’re backups nonetheless. I think we see an equally offensive game compared to what we saw in the opener, so I’ll side with the over as my pick for this one.