To use the words of head coach Jared Bednar, the Avalanche beat up the puck in Game 3. They just plain beat up the Stars with how well they moved the puck in Game 4.

There was nowhere for either team to move in the first three games, but something flipped in Game 4. The Avalanche were able to move the puck and skate through the neutral zone with ease.

They finished the night with 48 shots on net, 44 of which came at even strength. Even that number seems low because the team more or less stopped shooting after Sam Girard made it 4-0. You can’t say the Avalanche can smell blood right now because they’ve still got two games to win to close this thing out, but they can see the path.

“(In Game 4) we executed our gameplan extremely well,” Logan O’Connor said. “That’s the template for success for us and now it’s on us to make it repeatable and try to do the same thing in an away environment now…I feel as though we played to our identity tonight. When we do that, it’s extremely hard for teams to skate with us for a whole 60 minutes.”

The series sits at 2-2 and that’s all that really matters, but there are plenty of reasons for the Avalanche to feel confident heading into Game 5 at American Airlines Center at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Dallas had led for just 62 seconds in a series that has now gone on for over 263 minutes. Game 4 was about as perfect a game as the Avalanche can play, but they’ve played well in this series.

Their coach is certainly happy.

“I like the way we’ve played in this series, I’m not going to lie,” Bednar said. “We still are fighting for those results. The only score that matters is a score at the end of the game. I’m not going to be happy unless we’re winning hockey games and but I like a lot of the things we’re doing. We’re competing.

Three things to watch for in Game 5

Makar snakebit

Cale Makar looked like his old self in Game 4 but couldn’t find the back of the net.

At least he could find the net, though. That was an issue in Games 1 and 3 but he finished Game 4 with five shots on goal, a few of which were glorious scoring opportunities. If he keeps doing that, he’ll eventually beat Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.

Where are Necas and Drouin?

Jonathan Drouin made a nice play on Nathan MacKinnon’s first period goal but struggled again with the puck. Martin Necas has one assist through four games and had issues handling the puck in Game 4. Necas in particular needs to get going if he’s going to be playing on the top line.

How do the Stars respond?

Stars head coach Pete DeBoer made the interesting decision to pull Oettinger ahead of the third period of Game 4. After the game he said the decision was made to give Oettinger some rest, which seems a little strange in a game that still was within reach. If anything, that was a message to his team to get it together because Oettinger certainly was not the problem.

We’ll see how they respond with the series heading back to Dallas.