Colorado Avalanche: Anatomy of Mark Barberio’s 2 Dallas Stars Goals
Colorado Avalanche defenseman scored three goals in the 2017-18 season — two of them came against the Dallas Stars.
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Mark Barberio only scored three goals in the 2017-18 season. That’s not horrendous considering he only played 46 games last season, being out from January 23 to April 5 with a mysterious lower body injury.
All three of those goals came before his injury, with two of them coming against the Dallas Stars. Recently, I’ve been observing how certain players like to score on specific teams — both Tyson Jost and JT Compher love scoring on the Wild. It’s fine if Barberio enjoys scoring on another Central Division rival, the Dallas Stars.
The first of his two Stars goals, both noteworthy in their own right, came early in the season. The Avs were hosting the Stars, and they were on a concerning three-game losing streak. (Concerning because we weren’t so removed from the Dreadful Lost Season of 48 Points.) That was the game that saw Matthew Nieto earn his first NHL hat trick.
Barberio didn’t achieve quite that. However, his goal does carry the distinction of being the game-winner.
The goal comes late in the second period with the Avalanche up 3-2. With the seconds winding down, the play is in the Dallas zone. Tyson Barrie takes a shot from the point. The shot flies wide of the Dallas goal.
The puck hits the end boards and caroms to the right. Barberio takes the opportunity to jump into the play. With the puck coming right toward him, he takes a big stride into the circle. He winds up and shoots. Somehow the puck squirts past Kari Lehtonen:
The goal puts Colorado up 4-2. Stars defenseman
scores in the third, but the Avs win the game 5-3 — making Barberio’s tally the game-winner.
Mark Barberio’s second goal against the Dallas Stars — his third goal of the season, actually — came under different circumstances. He scored the goal in Dallas while the Colorado Avalanche were in the midst of their ten-game winning streak. His wasn’t the game-winner this time, but it was noteworthy because it was a short-handed goal.
The goal comes late in the third period. The Avs are short-handed because both Blake Comeau and Erik Johnson decided to gang up on Martin Hanzal — considering Hanzal once concussed Johnson and later sprained his neck, I think Erik should get a pass, but water under the bridge.
The Stars pull their goalie in an attempt to capitalize on the power play. Naturally, the play is in the Colorado zone. After a scrum in the corner, Dallas tries to get the puck to Tyler Seguin, which is a pretty good strategy.
However, the puck slides right past Barberio, and he takes the opportunity to slap it out of the zone. He looks like he’s aiming for the empty net and, indeed, the puck flies the length of the ice and into the Stars net:
The goal makes the score 4-1.
Mark Barberio was a waiver pickup from the Montreal Canadiens. However, despite his time on injured reserve, he seems to have found his way with the Colorado Avalanche. Indeed, the team signed the 28-year-old to a two-year contract extension before he could hit free agency this summer.
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Hopefully he can stay healthy and score more goals against the Stars and other Central Division rivals.