Not one. Not two. Not three. But six. That’s how many consecutive Game 1s the Dallas Stars have lost after falling to the visiting Colorado Avalanche 4-3 in overtime Tuesday night in the Western Conference semifinals.

The Stars jumped to a 3-0 lead in the first period after goals from Ryan Suter, Wyatt Johnston and Jamie Benn only to then go scoreless the rest of the way and allow four straight goals by the Avalanche, including the winner from Miles Wood nearly nine minutes into overtime.

“We had that game under control, and we let it slip away. But we’ve seen that in the regular season against them,” Stars forward Matt Duchene told reporters. “We had two games like that, so we have bounce back here and split the homestand here.”

The Avalanche jump-started their comeback by capitalizing on their power-play chances. Valeri Nichushkin trimmed the lead to 3-1 a little more than five minutes into the second period, and Cale Makar cut it to 3-2 nearly four minutes later.

Avalanche star center Nathan MacKinnon, who was named one of the three Hart Trophy finalists on Tuesday, scored the tying goal less than a minute into the third period.

“They’re a great power play,” Benn said. “They’ve got a lot of skill. We’ll have to watch some video, learn from it and move on.”

There were moments in overtime when the Avalanche struggled to find a clear shot before Wood found space on a breakaway and beat Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger for the winning goal.

“We didn’t know we could come back, but we wanted to at least try,” MacKinnon said after the game.

Learning how to make the necessary adjustments following a Game 1 loss has proved to be a familiar theme for the Stars.

The last time they won Game 1 of a playoff series came in 2020, when they took the first game of the Stanley Cup Final against the Tampa Bay Lightning in a series Dallas would lose in six games.

The Stars opened the 2022 playoffs with a Game 1 loss to the Calgary Flames and fell in seven games. Last season saw the Stars open the playoffs with a Game 1 loss in double overtime in the first round to the Minnesota Wild before winning the series in six games. Dallas lost Game 1 of the second round in overtime to the Seattle Kraken before winning that series in seven games en route to reaching the Western Conference finals, where the Stars lost another Game 1 that went into overtime to the Vegas Golden Knights before dropping that series in six games.

Fast-forward to this year’s playoffs: The Stars lost the first two games of their opening-round series to the Golden Knights before ousting the defending Stanley Cup champions in the first round. And now Dallas has pushed that streak to six straight Game 1 defeats with Tuesday’s loss to the Avalanche.

“I think you learn about each other as a series goes on, and what we know about that team is what happened tonight,” Stars coach Peter DeBoer said. “I think we had the lead. … They’re a quick-strike team. You can’t make mistakes in those situations. It’s a tough lesson to learn in Game 1, but glad you’re not learning it in Game 6 or 7 in an elimination game.”

Vincent Trocheck‘s double-overtime goal was the perfect encapsulation of the New York Rangers‘ series against the Hurricanes so far: It was scored on a Rangers power play during another failure for Carolina’s penalty kill.

“Not much else to talk about. It’s pretty evident,” Carolina captain Jordan Staal said after New York’s 4-3 victory to take a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday night. “The PK’s got to kill. If our power play converts on probably one [chance], we probably win. Everyone in the room knows our special teams need to be better.”

The Rangers went 2-for-7 on the power play in Game 2, after needing only 23 seconds to score twice on two opportunities in Game 1. For the playoffs, New York has 10 goals on 25 power-play opportunities (40%). Outside of the Edmonton Oilers, no one’s been hotter with the man advantage.

It’s not just how many power-play goals the Rangers score, but when they score them.

The Rangers tied the score at 3 on a power play, as Chris Kreider converted for his third goal of the playoffs at 6:07 of the third period with Dmitry Orlov in the penalty box for tripping.

Trocheck’s double-overtime winner was scored with Carolina defenseman Brady Skjei serving a penalty for cross-checking. Trocheck has scored in five straight games to join Cecil Dillon (5 GP in 1933) for the longest postseason goal streak in Rangers history.

That call on Skjei drew criticism on social media and during the broadcast for not being as emphatic as one might expect for a penalty whistled at 6:37 of the second overtime.

Staal was asked after the game if the Rangers were going down too easy on plays to draw penalties.

“Good question,” he said, before a lengthy pause to collect his thoughts. “It’s hard for the refs to know how hard guys hit other guys. It is what it is.”

Meanwhile, the Hurricanes have been completely blanked on the power play against the Rangers. They were 0-for-5 in Game 1 and in Game 2, as the Rangers penalty kill went 10-for-10 to open the series.

“We’ve got to definitely be sharper. We’ve got to get inside. We’re all on the outside. That’s not how we do it. We’ve got to get back to doing it the way we know how to,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said.

Goaltender Igor Shesterkin has been a factor on that perfect penalty kill, stopping all 10 power-play shots that he’s faced. That included two saves on Hurricanes star Sebastian Aho in overtime, sparking more chants of “I-GOR!” from Rangers fans.

“MSG was electric tonight. It’s an unbelievable feeling every time. [I was] almost crying,” Shesterkin said of the chants.

Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba said: “That’s Igor … we don’t win that game without him.”

The Hurricanes had the best penalty kill (86.4%) and second-best power play (26.9%) in the regular season. In the first round against the Islanders, the Hurricanes went 5-for-15 with the man advantage — although they did allow three power-play goals on 11 opportunities.

But in this round, they’re getting dominated.

“That part of the game is going well right now,” Trouba said. “That can change. Obviously, we’d like it to stay this way, but you don’t want to win games strictly that way.”

Game 3 is Thursday night in Raleigh, North Carolina.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Willy Adames had been chatting up the Royals fans behind the Milwaukee dugout all game, the good-natured ribbing carrying on as the Brewers jumped out to a two-run lead and Kansas City battled back to take its own two-run lead to the ninth.

With two outs and a pair of runners aboard, Adames found himself standing in the on-deck circle with the game on the line.

“They told me they wanted me to hit a three-run homer,” Adames would say later, “and I was like, ‘I got you.'”

Adames proceeded to drill an 83 mph curveball from Royals closer James McArthur into the left-field bullpen, sending Milwaukee to a 6-5 win Tuesday night and leaving those Kansas City fans mock-worshipping him as he returned to the dugout.

“It was really priceless,” said Brewers manager Pat Murphy, who had watched the called shot scene unfold. “It was really cool.”

Jared Koenig (3-1) earned the win for Milwaukee, getting Hunter Renfroe to ground out to end the seventh and then surviving a scoreless eighth. Trevor Megill breezed through the ninth to earn his third save in three tries.

Vinnie Pasquantino drove in three runs for Kansas City. Salvador Perez and Kyle Isbel also drove in runs.

“That one stings,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said, “but we’ve done that to other people as well.”

Rhys Hoskins and Joey Ortiz crushed back-to-back homers off Royals starter Seth Lugo in the second inning, but that was all the offense the Brewers could muster until the seventh, when they managed to coax another run across.

They squandered a chance to draw closer when Angel Zerpa struck out Gary Sanchez to strand a pair later in the seventh, then missed another opportunity in the eighth, when John Schreiber fanned Oliver Dunn to leave two more runners aboard.

The Brewers didn’t waste their final opportunity in the ninth.

McArthur (1-2) had retired the first two batters when William Contreras, on a full-count pitch, began the comeback with a double just inside the left-field foul line. Sanchez followed with a walk before Adames walked confidently to the plate.

“He’s carrying on with [the fans] during Gary’s at-bat, and he’s telling them — they’re Kansas City fans — he’s telling them, ‘One more ball,'” Murphy said. “Then he goes back to them and goes, ‘Here we go.'”

There it went, right into the left-field bullpen.

It wasn’t exactly on par Babe Ruth’s called shot — there’s a big difference between a regular-season game the first week of May and Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, when the Hall of Famer famously pointed toward deep center field at Wrigley Field, then homered to that exact spot to help the Yankees beat the Cubs 7-5.

Still, it was the kind of stuff certain to go down in Brewers lore.

“Oh my God, that was the coolest thing I ever done,” said Adames, who even signed some balls for those Kansas City fans. “You know, sometimes the fans will be very hard, but these guys here, they were amazing. They were having a good time. Like, all my at-bats, we were chatting, and then the last one was obviously the most fun.”