Tyler Seguin, Thomas Harley and Evgenii Dadonov also scored for Dallas, which is the No. 2 seed from the Central Division. Jake Oettinger made 34 saves.
“Our season’s on the line if we lose the first two games here. We got away with it last year in series one against Vegas, but you’re probably not going to that well again this year and winning,” Dallas coach Pete DeBoer said. “We knew our season was on the line, and like I said, I thought we got more direct in our game, more competitive, and got rewarded for that.”
Logan O’Connor had a goal and an assist, and Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Drury scored for Colorado, which is the No. 3 seed from the Central. Blackwood made 35 saves.
“[Blackwell] cut through the slot and shot it. I kind of got bumped into by our guy, or theirs, not really sure. He came out of the corner really quick and I was facing kind of up ice and not to the post. So, he kind of beat me to the spot,” Blackwood said. “You want to win every time you play, but I thought we did a pretty good job tonight. It could have went either way.”
MacKinnon gave Colorado a 1-0 lead at 8:48 of the first period with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle on the power play.
Seguin tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal at 19:06 when Matt Duchene found him with a cross-slot pass for a one-timer at the left face-off dot.
“[The game is] pretty quick. Just the emotions that come with that game, playing in front of our fans, looking up and not seeing anyone sitting down, that’s what the months of being out are all worth it,” said Seguin, who missed more than four months after having hip surgery on Dec. 5. “Just being able to get back and being part of this group and part of this journey together, the highs and lows and what it feels like to win a game like that and maybe losing the first one. Now get to Colorado and try to steal the first one.”
Harley gave Dallas a 2-1 lead at 3:40 of the second period with a wrist shot from the high slot after deking around the check of Colorado forward Charlie Coyle.
“You got to stay even-keeled through the whole thing, and there were times where we had good chances and a couple times where we got sloppy defensively. They’re a very opportunistic team, so they’re going to capitalize,” Makar said.
